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BR  115  .S6  A2  1896  c.2 
Abbott,  Lyman,  1835-1922, 
Christianaity  and  social 
problems 


Copyright  1897  by  Hollinger  &  Rocket 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott 


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THE    EVOLUTION    OF   CHRISTIANITY.     i6mo, 
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CHRISTIANITY     AND      SOCIAL      PROBLEMS. 
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CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL 
PROBLEMS 


BY 


LYMAN   ABBOTT 


M 

B^^ 

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Si 

BpMt0frsi&rPn^S1| 

BOSTON    AND    NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

1897 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  LYMAN   ABBOTT. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  11.  O.  Houghton  &  COo 


PREFACE. 


Christ's  mission  was  twofold,  —  individual  and 
social ;  to  make  men  worthy  to  be  called  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  and  also  to  make  a  state  of  society 
on  the  earth  worthy  to  be  called  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  This  kingdom  is  a  heavenly  kingdom,  be- 
cause the  source  of  its  power  is  from  above ;  it  is 
an  earthly  kingdom,  because  the  scene  of  its  tri- 
umjDh  is  on  the  earth.  Jesus  Christ's  object  was 
not  to  save  some  —  few  or  many  —  from  a  wrecked 
and  lost  world ;  it  was  to  recover  the  world  itself 
and  make  it  righteous.  The  Lamb  of  God  whom 
John  the  Baptist  saw  came,  not  to  take  away  some 
sin  from  some  men,  but  the  sin  of  the  world. 
Christ  taught  his  disciples  to  pray  that  God's 
name  might  be  hallowed,  his  kingdom  might  come, 
his  will  might  be  done,  on  earth  as  in  heaven. 
Protestant  theology  has  put  its  chief  emphasis  on 
the  mission  of  Christ  to  individuals.  There  is  a 
reason,  elucidated  in  the  closing  chapter  of  this 
book,  for  the  modern  tendency  to  turn  attention 


IV  PREFACE. 

toward  Christ's  mission  to  society.  It  is  with 
that  aspect  of  his  teachings  that  this  volume  exclu- 
sively deals.  Its  object  is  to  make  some  appli- 
cation of  them  to  the  social  problems  of  our  time. 
It  is  written  in  the  faith  that  in  them  is  to  be 
found  {he  secret  of  a  true  social  order. 

This  volume  is  the  outcome  of  long-continued 
study  of  Christ's  social  teachings  for  the  purpose 
of  applying  them  to  present  conditions.  The  re- 
sults have  been  embodied  from  time  to  time  in 
lectures,  in  special  contributions  to  "  The  Forum," 
the  "  North  American  Eeview,"  the  "  Century  Mag- 
azine," the  *'  Cosmopolitan,"  in  sermons  in  Plym- 
outh pulpit,  and  in  editorial  treatment  of  current 
questions  in  "  The  Outlook."  In  the  fall  of  1895 
I  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  this  subject 
before  the  Meadville  Theological  School  and  the 
citizens  of  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  being  the 
course  for  that  year  on  the  Adin  Ballou  founda- 
tion. About  the  same  time  I  gave  a  course  of 
sermons  on  the  same  topics  in  Plymouth  pulpit, 
and  a  little  later  three  of  the  lectures  were  re- 
peated at  Haverford  College,  Pennsylvania.  Both 
lectures  and  sermons  were  given  extemporaneously. 
In  preparing  this  volume  I  have  made  use  of  these 
lectures  and  sermons,  and  also  at  various  times  of 
the  previous  periodical  contributions. 


PREFACE.  V 

My  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  to  my 
brother-in-law,  the  Rev.  Cyrus  Hamlin,  2d,  D.  D., 
for  aid  in  collating,  examining,  and  verifying  au- 
thorities ;  and  to  my  son,  Mr.  Herbert  Vaughan 
Abbott,  for  aid  in  carrying  the  book  through  the 
press. 

LYMAN   ABBOTT. 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  September,  1896. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  'AGE 

I.    The  Founder  of  Christianity    ....  1 

II.     Christianity  and  Democracy  ....  27 

III.  Christianity  and  Communism       ....  66 

IV.  Christianity  and  Socialism      ....  100 
V.    Christ's  Law  of  the  Family      ....  138 

VI.    Christ's  Law  of  Service 159 

VII.    Christ's  Standard  of  Values     ....  179 
VIII.    Christ's  Law  for  the  Settlement  of  Contro- 
versies: Personal  Controversies       .        .  225 
IX.     Christ's  Law  for  the  Settlement  of  Contro- 
versies: International  Controversies         .  237 
X.     Christ's  Law  for  the  Settlement  of  Contro- 
versies:  Labor  Controversies   .        .        .  268 
XI.     Criminals  ;  the  Enemies  of  the  Social,  Order  297 

XII.    The  Social  Evil 329 

XIII.    The  Brotherhood  of  Man 361 


CHRISTIANITY   AND  SOCIAL 
PKOBLEMS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    FOUNDER    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

Nineteen  hundred  years  ago  there  lived  in  one 
of  the  small  provinces  of  Palestine  a  peculiar 
people.  They  were  reserved  and  exclusive,  and 
were  regarded  by  their  neighbors  as  proud  and 
haughty.  In  their  religious  ideas  they  were  un- 
compromising, and  were  popularly  regarded  as 
intolerant.  Their  religion  was  unique.  One 
sacred  temple  they  possessed,  to  which  they  made 
pilgrimages  from  time  to  time,  and  here  dwelt 
a  sacred  priesthood,  who  conducted  a  ritual  and 
offered  the  sacrifices  which  the  religion  of  the 
people  called  for.  But  these  sacrifices,  as  com- 
pared with  those  of  their  heathen  neighbors,  were 
simple  and  uncostly.  They  had  a  house  for 
religious  gatherings  in  every  village,  where  they 
met  weekly  for  worship  and  instruction.  They 
worshiped  one  God,  but  allowed  no  picture  or 
statue  of  Him  either  in  temple  or  in  home. 
Their  sacred  books  taught  that  He  was  a  right- 
eous  God,  that    He   demanded   righteousness   of 


2  CHRISTIAXITY   AXD    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

His  people,  and  demanded  nothing  else  ;  that  He 
was  best  pleased,  not  by  costly  adoration  paid  to 
Him,  but  by  obedience  to  His  laws  —  by  doing 
justice,  loving  mercy,  and  walking  in  humility 
with  Him.^  In  this  respect  their  religion  differed 
radically  from  that  of  the  pagan  nations  about 
them,  the  object  of  whose  worship  was  either  to 
placate  the  anger  of  a  wrathful  deity,  or  to  win  by 
bribes  and  flatteries  the  special  favor  of  a  cor- 
ruptible one.  Thus  their  religion  had  an  ethical 
character,  not  found  in  the  other  world-religions  of 
that  age,  and  too  little  found  in  religion  in  its  pro- 
fessional forms  in  any  age.  Their  sacred  books, 
which  constituted  their  sole  literature,  required 
them  to  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in 
this  present  life,  as  a  necessary  means  of  realiz- 
ing the  hope  of  a  life  to  come.  Drunkenness 
and  licentiousness,  which  were  not  uncommon  in 
pagan  services,  would  have  been  as  incongruous 
in  the  worship  of  this  peculiar  people  as  irrever- 
ence and  blasphemy .2  Unchastity,  greed,  anger, 
and  all  the  evils  which  spring  from  these  and 
kindred  sins,  were  prohibited  by  the  laws  which 
every  week  were  read  in  the  people's  hearing ; 
the  evils  which  these  vices  inflict  upon  the  com- 
munity, and  the  benefits  which  flow  from  the  con- 
trasted virtues,  Avere  illustrated  by  sacred  histo- 
ries, written  unmistakably  for  this  very  purpose. 
Of  art  for  art's  sake  they  knew  nothing.  The 
great  epic  of  their  literature  was  written  to  illus- 

i  Micah  vi.  8.  ^  j^g^  ^    9  .  gzek.  xliv.  21. 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  6 

trate  and  recommend  patience  and  resignation ; 
the  one  drama  which  their  sacred  literature  con- 
tains was  written  to  glorify  the  fidelity  of  woman's 
love ;  its  one  dramatic  story,  to  glorify  her  cour- 
age ;  its  one  pastoral  idyl,  to  glorify  maidenly  loy- 
alty and  maidenly  reserve. 

One  of  the  most  distinctive  features  of  this 
sacred  literature  was  an  ideal  political  constitu- 
tion. The  people  had  no  doubt  that  this  con- 
stitution had  an  historical  existence ;  that  it  had 
been  jriven  to  their  ancestors  fifteen  centuries 
before ;  that  those  ancestors  had  really  lived  under 
it ;  and  that  the  present  distress  of  the  nation  was 
a  deserved  penalty  inflicted  on  the  nation  because 
it  had  abandoned  this  divinely  inspired  constitu- 
tion, and  disregarded  the  laws  connected  with  and 
ofrowino^  out  of  it.  Many,  if  not  most,  modern 
scholars  take  a  different  view.  It  is  now  very 
generally  thought  that  only  the  very  simplest 
principles  imbedded  in  this  constitution  date  from 
1400  B.  c,  and  that  the  constitution  and  laws 
themselves  grew  up  gradually  in  the  Hebraic 
nation  as  constitution  and  laws  have  grown  up 
in  other  nations.  It  is  not  important  for  my 
purpose  in  this  volume  to  determine  whether  the 
ancient  or  the  modern  view  is  correct ;  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  the  laws  to  be  found  in  the  first 
five  books  of  this  peculiar  people  constituted 
their  ideal.  The  fundamental  principle  underly- 
ing these  laws  was  the  supreme  authority  of  their 
God.       "  God    spake    all   these    words "    was    the 


4  CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

preamble  to  their  fundamental  code.  Their  king- 
dom thus  established  was  designated  by  them 
as  The  Kingdom  of  God.  The  title  by  which 
their  commonwealth  is  known  in  history  is  The 
Theocracy.  Believed  to  be  in  its  origin  and 
inspiration  divine,  it  was  in  its  nature  and  spirit 
democratic.  So  radical  was  this  democracy  that 
God  Himself  did  not  accept  the  kingship  of 
this  people  until  by  universal  suffrage  they  had 
accepted  Him  as  their  King.  His  royal  authority 
and  their  loyal  obligation  both  rested  upon  a 
covenant  voluntarily  entered  into  on  their  part 
with  Him ;  and  the  collection  of  their  sacred  books 
is  from  this  circumstance  known  to-day  in  liter- 
ature as  the  Old  Covenant.^  The  authority  of 
the  rulers  and  of  the  laws  in  this  ideal  common- 
wealth rested  upon  popular  even  if  not  universal 
suffrage.  There  was  no  recognized  aristocracy; 
class  and  class  distinctions  were  explicit^  pro- 
hibited. In  the  earlier  history  the  rulers  were 
chiefs  providentially  selected  ;  ^  when  later  a  mon- 
archy was  established,  the  power  of  the  monarch 
was  carefully  defined,  and  the  limitations  of  his 
power  were  actual,  not  imaginar}^  When  in  the 
later  and  corrupter  period  of  their  history  the 
unscrupulous  Ahab  desired  to  get  possession  of 
a  poor  peasant's  land,  he  could  not  do  so  without 
corrupting  the  court,  and  securing  the  poor  man's 
conviction   on   false  accusations.^      Though  demo- 

^  Exodus  xix.  5-8.  '^  1  Kings  xxi.  1-10. 

2  Judges  ii.  16,  18;  iii.  9;  vi.  11,  etc. 


THE   FOUNDER    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  5 

cratic  in  its  nature,  this  ideal  commonwealth  was 
republican  in  its  form ;  that  is,  the  power  of  the 
people  was  exercised  through  representative  assem- 
blies,—  a  popular  chamber  known  as  the  Great 
Conoreo'ation,  and  a  smaller  chamber  known  as 
the  Elders.^  The  latter  also  exercised  supreme 
judicial  functions.  The  laws  of  this  ideal  com- 
monwealth were  singularly  humane,  and  for  that 
age  progressive.  Slavery  and  polygamy  were  in- 
deed permitted,  but  surrounded  with  such  restric- 
tions that  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era 
they  had  disappeared.  Attainder  was  forbidden ; 
capital  punishment  permitted  for  only  twelve 
crimes  ;  life,  liberty,  property,  was  guarded  ;  and  a 
judiciary  created  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to 
every  man  an  impartial  trial.  Popular  education 
was  provided  for,  partly  by  obligations  laid  upon 
the  parents  in  the  home,  partly  by  the  creation 
of  a  special  class  of  teachers  scattered  through- 
out the  country,  and  partly  by  the  recognition  of 
the  rights  of  free  speech  and  free  discussion.^     In 

1  The  first  body  reflected  the  popular  will.  It  voted  not  to 
attempt  the  subjugation  of  Canaan  (Num.  xiv.  1-5,  10),  inducted 
Joshua  into  office  (Num.  xxvii.  18-23),  ratified  the  selecting-  of 
Saul  as  King-,  voted  to  bring-  up  the  Ark  of  God  from  Kirjath- 
jearim  (1  Chron.  xiii.  1-5).  The  second  body  constituted  Moses' 
Privy  Council  (Num.  xi.  16-17),  made  treaties  (Josh.  ix.  18-21), 
tried  certain  cases  (Jer.  xxvi.  10-16).  It  was  Cabinet,  Senate, 
and  Supreme  Court. 

-  The  punishment  for  blasphemy  is  rather  an  apparent  than  a 
real  exception ;  for  under  a  theocracy  blasphemy  was  in  the 
nature  of  treason :  it  was  an  attempt  to  weaken  the  loyalty  of 
the  people  to  their  king. 


b  CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

time  of  war  the  commonwealth  depended  wholly 
on  militia ;  there  was  no  standing  army,  and 
the  employment  of  cavalry  for  offensive  warfare 
was  prohibited.^  On  the  other  hand,  agriculture, 
which  political  economy  shows  us  to  be  the  basis 
of  permanent  national  prosperity,  was  encouraged 
and  promoted.^  There  was  a  priesthood,  but  on 
the  one  hand  it  was  deprived  of  all  share  in  the 
land,  and  was  made  dependent  upon  the  voluntary 
contributions  of  the  people  ;  ^  and  on  the  other  the 
people  were  not  made  dependent  upon  the  priest- 
hood for  their  acceptable  access  to  God.*  That 
danger  of  land  monopoly,  which  history  has  proved 
to  be  so  great  and  so  common  a  peril,  was  guarded 
against  by  the  declaration  that  all  the  land  be- 
longed to  God,  and  a  provision  that  at  the  end 
of  every  fifty  years  it  should  revert  to  God  again. ^ 
In  other  words,  the  owner  was  only  a  tenant.  It 
is  very  doubtful  whether  this  provision  was  ever 
actually  put  in  operation,  but  it  was  a  part  of  the 
ideal  commonwealth.^ 

Whether  or  not  this  theocracy  ever  existed 
except  upon  paper,  it  was  the  ideal  which  was 
ever  kept    before  the  hope   of    this  peculiar  peo- 

1  Num.  i. ;  xxvi.  2-4 ;  Judges  v.  23. 

2  Wines,  Law  of  The  Ancient  Hebrews,  414-417,  and  Scripture 
authorities  there  cited. 

3  Num.  xviii.  20-24 ;  xxvi.  02  ;    Deut.  x.  8,  9 ;  xviii.  2. 

4  Ps.  li.  16,  17  ;  1  Kings  viii.  27,  28  ;  Is.  Ix^d.  1,  2. 

5  Lev.  XXV.  23-28. 

°  For  a  fuller  statement  of  the  features  of  the  Hebrew  com- 
monwealth, see  my  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  chap.  ii. 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  7 

pie,  in  their  earlier  history  by  the  voices  of  the 
prophets,  in  their  later  history  by  the  reading  of 
the  sacred  books  at  the  weekly  services  in  the 
synagogues.  These  prophets  foretold  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  the  theocracy  on  a  grander  scale  and 
in  greater  splendor.  They  told  of  One  who  would 
come  to  bring  again  this  Kingdom  of  God  upon 
the  earth ;  then  men  would  beat  their  spears  into 
plowshares  and  their  swords  into  pruning-hooks. 
Then  law  would  need  no  army  to  enforce  it,  for 
it  would  issue  from  Zion ;  that  is,  it  would  be 
enforced  by  the  sanctions  of  religion.^  Then  re- 
lioious  education  would  be  so  universal  that  no 
man  would  need  to  say  to  his  neighbor.  Know  the 
Lord,  for  every  one  in  childhood  would  have  been 
taught  concerning  him.  Palestine  would  become 
the  mistress  of  the  world,  Jerusalem  the  Holy 
City  of  all  nations ;  for  then  the  message  of  jus- 
tice, liberty,  and  religion,  with  which  the  Jewish 
nation  was  intrusted,  would  be  proclaimed  to  all 
mankind,  and  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  would 
come  to  enjoy  the  brightness  of  Israel's  illumina- 
tion. Even  the  very  animals  would  feel  the  effect 
of  the  change  :  ^  the  poison  of  the  asp  would  be 
gone ;  the  lion  and  the  lamb  would  lie  down  to- 
gether, and  a  little  child  would  lead  them.  These 
messages,  based  on  this  ancient  ideal,  had  sunk 
deep  into  the  heart  of  the  people,  and  made  them 
a  forelooking,  a  progressive  people.     To  this  day 

1  Zech.  ix.  9,  10;  Jer.  xxxi.  31,  32  ;  Is.  liv.  11-15 ;  ii.  1-4. 

2  Is.  xi.  6-9. 


5  CHRISTJAXJTY    AND    SOCIAL    FJiOBLEMS. 

they  constantly  look  forward.  This  restoration 
and  the  Coming  One  who  was  to  bring  it  about 
were  the  theme  of  their  public  and  private  dis- 
course. Great  omens  in  nature,  great  events 
among  the  nations,  would  precede  and  prepare  for 
it.^  Elijah,  the  great  prophet  of  one  of  their 
national  reformations,  would  rise  from  the  dead 
to  initiate  this  greater  reformation.^  The  hostile 
powers  would  gather ;  the  powers  of  Israel,  led  by 
the  Messiah,  would  meet  and  conquer  and  crush 
them.^  Jerusalem  would  be  renovated ;  the  Israel- 
ites, dispersed  throughout  the  world,  would  be 
brought  back  again  to  their  home ;  strife,  quarrels, 
and  war  would  cease ;  ^  and  the  world  itself  would 
become  a  new  world  wherein  should  dwell  ritjht- 
eousness.^ 

Of  a  peasant  woman  living  in  this  province, 
belonging  to  this  people  and  sharing  its  faith  and 
life,  there  was  born  a  son.  His  peculiar  birth  was 
accompanied  with  promises  which  later  history 
interpreted  to  mean  that  in  him  should  be  ful- 
filled the  promises  of  prophecy  and  the  hopes  of 
Israel.  In  accordance  with  the  Jewish  law,  which 
required  every  father  to  teach  his  son  a  trade,  this 
boy,  brought  up  in  his  peasant  home,  learned  the 
trade  of  a  carpenter.^     His  boyhood  was  spent  in 

1  Joel  ii.  31-33 ;  iii.  2,  15-21. 

2  Mai.  iv.  5.  3  Zech.  xiv.  1-3. 

*  Mieah  ii.  12,  13 ;  Jer.  xxxi.  7-14 ;  Is.  xi.  10-12 ;  xlix.  14-23. 
6  Is.  Ix.  1(3-22;  Ixv.  17-25. 

^  Stapfer's  Palestine  in  the  Time  of  Christ,  p.  145 ;  Edersheim, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  i.  252. 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRJ k^TIANITY.  9 

poverty.  His  home  probably  contained  but  a 
single  room :  the  walls  were  of  sun-dried  brick ; 
the  roof  was  of  straw.  This  single  room  was 
kitchen,  parlor,  bedroom,  sitting-room,  and  work- 
shop. It  had  neither  window  of  glass  nor  chim- 
ney ;  a  narrow  slit  in  the  wall,  too  narrow  to 
admit  the  rain,  admitted  the  light.  The  mother 
generally  cooked  without,  on  a  sort  of  camjj-fire. 
But  the  climate  was  mild ;  the  resources  con- 
tracted ;  the  cooking  slight.  The  mother  ground 
a  little  wheat  between  two  stones  in  a  hand-mill, 
and  baked  a  thin  cake  upon  a  hot  stone :  this 
was  their  bread.  Fruits  were  plenty  and  cheap, 
and  an  occasional  fish  served  as  an  article  of 
luxury.  Often  at  night  the  father  would  wrap  a 
shawl  about  him  and  sleep  in  the  open  air.  As 
the  son  grew  up  toward  manhood,  he  would  do 
the  same. 

It  is  probable  that  there  were  in  this  peasant 
home  some  fragments  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
it  is  certain  that  the  son  heard  it  read  every  Sab- 
bath-day in  the  synagogue,  and  was  taught  from  it 
every  day  in  the  parish  school.  For  the  village 
synagogue  had  attached  to  it  a  school  in  which 
were  taught  reading,  possibly  a  little  arithmetic, 
and,  together  with  the  Old  Testament,  more  or 
less  of  current  theological  interpretations ;  but 
nothing  more.  The  children  of  the  peasants  were 
not  taught  to  write.  A  scribe  could  always  be 
found  in  the  street,  with  pen,  ink,  and  parchment, 
to    write    a   letter.       Science    was    not    yet   born. 


10         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  only  geography  taught  was  that  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Palestine  ;  the  world  without  was  left  an 
unknown  world.  Only  once  did  the  boy  from 
whose  birth  all  history  dates  get  even  a  glimpse 
of  any  higher  education.  When  he  w^as  twelve 
years  old  he  went  up  with  his  father  and  mother 
to  eTerusalem ;  strayed  away  from  the  party ;  was 
quite  indifferent  to  the  pageantry  of  the  great 
processions,  and  the  sj^lendor  of  architecture  and 
music  which  made  the  temple  not  only  the  glory 
of  Palestine,  but  a  scenic  wonder  of  the  world ; 
and  was  found,  two  or  three  days  after,  in  the 
school  of  the  rabbis,  whose  courts  surrounded 
the  temple,  and  constituted  the  university  of  the 
Jewish  people.  His  naive  wonder  that  his  mother 
did  not  know  where  to  look  for  him  ^  is  a  striking: 
illustration  of  that  love  for  the  higher  thoughts 
which  even  at  this  early  age  was  characteristic 
of  him. 

There  are  certain  atmospheric  influences  which 
are  sometimes  more  potent  in  affecting  character 
than  those  which  are  organized  and  directed  for 
that  purpose.  Of  the  home  influence  of  this  boy 
we  know  very  little.  If  he  had  any  near  relatives, 
they  were  not  of  a  kind  to  inspire  him.  Of  the 
father  we  know  scarcely  anything ;  apparently  he 
died  before  the  boy  came  to  maturity.  He  early 
disappears  entirely  from  the  scene,  and  Jesus, 
at  his  death,  would  hardly  have  committed  his 
mother  to  the  keeping  of  a  friend,  as  he  did,  if 
1  Luke  ii.  41-51. 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  11 

the  father  were  still  living.  Of  the  mother  the 
biographers  of  the  son  give  us  only  glimpses,  but 
they  are  such  as  to  justify  the  church  and  the 
world  in  regarding  her  as  an  almost  ideal  type  of 
womanhood  and  motherhood.  She  was  a  woman 
of  rare  force  of  character,  —  shown  in  that  journey 
which  she  took,  unattended,  from  Galilee  to  Judea 
to  visit  Elizabeth,  —  a  dangerous  expedition  for  a 
woman  in  those  days  of  rough  roads,  lawless  ban- 
ditti, and  scant  respect  for  woman.  She  was  a 
heart-student  of  the  Scriptures,  —  shown  in  the 
one  psalm  of  which  she  is  the  author,^  and  which 
has  remained  in  the  ritual  of  the  church  as 
an  expression  of  devotion.  And  she  had  that 
patience  of  love  which  is  the  highest  attribute  of 
woman,  —  shown  in  her  standing  at  the  cross,  the 
helpless  companion  of  her  suffering  son,  until  he 
breathed  his  last. 

And  yet  it  seems  clear  that  the  son  did  not  get 
his  conception  of  his  mission  from  his  mother ;  for 
it  was  she  who,  on  the  one  hand,  was  impatient 
for  him  to  inaugurate  his  ministry  by  a  miracle,^ 
and  who,  on  the  other  hand,  when  that  min- 
istry brought  him  into  conflict  with  the  Pharisees, 
feared  lest  his  enthusiasm  was  running  into  fa- 
naticism, and  would  have  called  him  away  from 
danger  to  safety  and  repose.^  In  the  wider  in- 
fluence of  Palestine  there  is  little  or  nothing  to 
account  for  the  character  of  this  "  Son  of  the 
Carpenter."     The  preaching  in  the  synagogue  was 

1  Luke  i.  46-55.  2  jotn  ii.  3.  3  Mark  iii.  21,  31. 


12        CHRTSTTANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

much  like  preaching  in  our  clay, —  some  of  it  good, 
some  of  it  indifferent,  some  of  it  very  bad.  He 
might  have  heard  in  his  boyhood  a  scribe  of  the 
school  of  Hillel,  who  told  him  that  to  love  God 
and  his  fellow-men  was  better  than  whole  burnt- 
offerings  ;  or  he  might  have  heard  a  scribe  of  the 
school  of  Shammai  discussing  the  question  whether 
it  were  right  to  eat  an  Qgg  laid  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  which  presumptively  had  been  prepared 
by  the  hen  on  the  Sabbath  day.  Probably  he 
heard  some  j^reaching  of  both  descriptions;  but, 
on  the  whole,  in  neither  of  the  three  great  schools 

of  thought  was  there  much  to  instruct  or  inspire, 

neither  in  the  cynical  and  superstitious  Sadducees, 
who  denied  both  a  personal  God  and  a  personal 
immortality;  nor  in  the  Essenes,  the  ascetics  of 
the  first  century,  who  believed  the  world  was 
hopelessly  going  wrong,  and  withdrew  from  it  to 
the  wilderness  in  despair  of  bettering  it;  nor  in 
the  Pharisees,  who  knew  no  road  to  righteousness 
but  that  of  compulsion,  and  so  no  law  of  righteous- 
ness but  that  of  external  statutes. 

Educated  under  such  influences  as  I  have  here 
briefly  described,  the  ^' Son  of  the  Carpenter" 
came  forth  at  the  age  of  thirty  to  be  a  teacher 
of  his  people.  He  was  without  the  influence  that 
comes  from  either  family,  official  position,  or  learn- 
ing. "  Only  the  lower  natures,"  says  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  "are  formed  by  external  circumstances. 
Great  natures  are  fully  developed  by  forces  from 
within."     This    force    from   within  we    sometimes 


THE   FOUNDER    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  13 

call  genius,  sometimes  inspiration,  but  in  either 
case  a  "  gift ; "  thus  we  unconsciously  recognize 
that  it  is  a  direct  bestowal  from  God  which  trans- 
cends our  analysis  and  eludes  our  explanation. 
By  what  secret  hours  of  prayer  and  meditation  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  had  been  fed  we  do  not  know.  We 
only  know  that  he  was  accustomed  to  say  to  his 
disciples  that  it  was  fed  by  unseen  sources,  and 
that  on  at  least  three  occasions  he  gave  them  a 
glimpse  of  that  celestial  but  secret  inspiration 
which  accounted  for  the  strength  and  the  serenity 
that  characterized  him.^  A  hirsute,  courageous, 
but  ascetic  reformer  had  raised  his  voice  in  protest 
against  the  corruption  and  formalism  of  the  times. 
Jesus,  at  the  outset  of  his  public  ministry,  identi- 
fied himself  with  this  reformer,  though  afterwards 
criticising  his  methods,  —  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  principle  that  in  moral  reform  the  end  sought 
always  transcends  the  means  employed,  and  that 
moral  earnestness  will  not  stop  to  quarrel  with  the 
methods,  —  if  they  are  not  immoral,  —  provided 
the  true  end  is  sincerely  and  steadily  kept  in  view. 
And  the  ends  which  Jesus  and  his  cousin,  John 
the  Baptizer,  had  in  view  were  the  same,  —  the  de- 
liverance of  the  nation  by  the  reformation  of  its 
individual  members. 

The  nation  was  in  need  of  a  deliverance.  She 
was  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  lay  at  the  mercy  of 
her  Roman  conqueror.  The  system  of  taxation 
was  the  worst  which  the  iniquity  of  man  has  ever 

1  Matt.  iv.  11  ;  xvii.  1-5  ;  Luke  xxii.  4:i ;  John  iv.  82  ;  xiv.  10. 


14        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

devised,  and  it  lias  devised  some  very  bad  ones. 
Rome  farmed  each  province  out,  and  the  tax- 
gatherers,  paying  a  fixed  sum  to  the  central  gov- 
ernment, took  from  the  wretched  inhabitants  all 
that  could  be  extorted  from  them.^  The  priests 
were  largely  Sadducees,  who  practiced  the  ritual  of 
the  religion  while  openly  disavowing  belief  in  its 
doctrines.  The  religious  teachers  —  with  some 
notable  exceptions  —  preached  formalism  and  prac- 
ticed covetousness.  The  houses  of  the  peasantry 
were  little  better  than  hovels.  If  a  man  were  for- 
tunate enough  to  earn  a  little  more  than  he  spent, 
there  was  no  undertaking  in  which  he  could  invest 

1  The  revenues  which  Rome  derived  from  conquered  countries 
were  let  out,  or,  as  the  Romans  expressed  it,  were  sold  by  the 
censors  in  Rome  itself  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  successful 
bidder  paid  the  stipulated  sum  into  the  treasury,  and  then  col- 
lected as  much  from  the  province  he  had  bid  for  as  he  could, 
and  the  process  was  repeated  in  succession  by  his  subordinates  in 
their  separate  offices.  Not  unfrequently  the  contract  was  taken 
by  a  joint-stock  company,  with  a  managing-  director  at  Rome  and 
a  sub-magister  in  the  province,  who  was  the  chief  for  the  district ; 
under  him  were  the  '"  actual  custom-house  officers,  who  examined 
each  bale  of  g-oods  exported  or  imported,  assessed  its  value  more 
or  less  arbitrarily,  wrote  out  the  ticket,  and  enforced  payment. 
The  latter  were  commonly  natives  of  the  province  in  which  they 
were  stationed,  as  being  brought  daily  into  contact  with  all  classes 
of  the  population."  These  are  the  persons  usually  meant  by  the 
word  "  publicans  "  in  the  New  Testament.  They  "  were  encour- 
aged in  the  most  vexatious  and  fraudulent  exactions,  and  a 
remedy  was  all  but  impossible."  In  addition  to  their  other  faults, 
the  publicans  of  the  New  Testament  were  regarded  as  traitors 
and  apostates.  In  Galilee  they  consisted  probably  of  the  least 
reputable  members  of  the  fisherman  and  i>easant  class.  See 
Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  art.  "  Publicans." 


THE  FOUNDER   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  15 

his  surplus.  He  had  either  to  buy  fine  clothes, 
which  the  moths  destroyed  ;  ^  or  lock  his  money  up 
in  a  strong  box,  which  a  thief  might  carry  off  if 
the  tax-gatherer  failed  to  discover  it ;  or  dig  a  hole 
in  the  ground  and  bury  it,  where  perhaps  another 
would  find  it  after  his  death.^  The  people  lived  in 
that  stolid  despair  which  is  so  often  mistaken  for 
content,  and  which  in  their  case  was  saved  from 
becoming  an  acute  and  intolerable  despair  only  by 
the  dormant  hope  of  a  deliverance  and  Deliverer 
whom  their  children  or  children's  children  might 
see. 

Jesus  from  the  first  spoke  to  this  dormant  hope. 
He  told  the  people  that  the  deliverance  and  the 
Deliverer  had  come  ;  that  the  day  had  dawned,  and 
they  might  see  the  ruddy  sign  of  the  dawn  if  they 
would  but  look  up.  He  bade  them  not  look  for- 
ward any  longer,  for  the  kingdom  had  arrived  and 
was  among  them.  His  message  was,  "  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand."  One  of  his  earlier 
sermons  was  reported  and  has  been  preserved.  It 
was  preached  in  the  synagogue  of  his  native  vil- 
lao-e.  He  read  from  the  roll  of  Isaiah  an  ancient 
prophecy  of  a  good  time  coming,  when  glad  tidings 
should  be  preached  to  the  poor,  the  broken-hearted 
should  be  healed,  the  captives  delivered,  the  blind 
made  to  see,  the  bruised  set  at  liberty.  He  said 
that  the  time  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy 
had  come.  We  are  now  so  familiar  with  this  mes- 
saofe  that  we  cannot  realize  what  it  meant  in  the 

1  Matt.  vi.  19,  20.  -  Matt.  xiii.  44. 


16        CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  when  equal  rights 
were  unknown ;  when  half  the  population  of  Rome 
were  slaves,  holding  life  itself  at  the  sufferance  of 
their  masters ;  when  in  Rome  education  was  con- 
fined to  the  higher  circles,  and  in  the  higher  circles 
to  a  knowledge  of  elocution  and  gymnastics ;  when 
a  wife  might  at  any  time  be  dismissed  by  her  hus- 
band, as  a  servant  with  us ;  when  law  was  habitu- 
ally an  instrument  for  oppression,  taxation  was  a 
form  of  robbery,  and  liberty  was  another  name  for 
lawlessness.  Such  an  age  listened  with  wonder- 
ing, it  may  almost  be  said  childish  delight,  to  the 
declaration  that  One  had  come  under  whose  influ- 
ence slavery  would  be  abolished,  the  peasant  popu- 
lations of  the  world  would  be  enfranchised,  wealth 
would  be  diffused,  education  would  be  universal, 
war  would  cease,  woman  would  become  the  true 
companion  of  her  former  master,  and  every  house 
w^ould  become  a  home,  its  furnishing,  comfort,  its 
atmosphere,  love. 

The  public  preaching  with  which  Christ  followed 
this  sermon  is  largely  an  amplification  of  it.  Its 
burden  is.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  The 
message  of  Christianity  as  delivered  by  the  Church 
has  often  misinterpreted  that  of  the  Master.  But 
if  we  will  forget  the  intervening  ecclesiastical  mes- 
sages and  go  back  to  the  first  century,  — if  we 
will  consider  the  history  of  the  people  to  whom 
Jesus  Christ  spoke,  their  literature,  their  train- 
ing, their  expectations,  and  then  will  read  Christ's 
instructions   in   the   light  of   his   own   time,  —  we 


THE   FOUNDER    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  17 

can    hardly   fail    to    see    that    the    burden    of   his 
ministry   was    far   more    sociological    than    either 
ecclesiastical  or  theological.      He  intimated   that 
there  was  to  be  a  church,  but  he  gave  almost  no 
instructions  respecting  its  constitution  or  its  laws. 
Once,  in  Galilee,  he  sent  his  twelve  disciples  forth 
two  by  two  1  to  act.  as  heralds  of  the  coming  king- 
dom, while  he   heralded  it    in  the   larger    towns. 
Once,  in  the  larger  province  of  Perea,  he  sent  forth 
seventy  upon  a  similar  mission.^     Once,  in  answer 
to  a  request  of  his  disciples  for  instructions  how  to 
pray,  he  combined  in  a  marvelously  brief  and  sim- 
ple prayer  the  commoner  desires  of  devout  souls, 
and  left  it  rather  as  a  type  of  all  devotion  than  as 
a  form  for  any.      But,    excepting  for  these  inci- 
dents,  for  two   or  three  enigmatical    declarations 
applied  by  some  to  the  twelve,  and  by  some  to  all 
disciples  in  all  times,  and  for  two  directions,  —  one 
given  just   before  his  death,  the    other    after  his 
resurrection,  out  of  which  have  grown  the  obser- 
vance of   baptism,  of  the   Lord's   Supper,  and  in 
some  churches   of    a   foot-washing  ceremonial,  — 
he  said  little  or  nothing  concerning  either  ritual  or 
ecclesiastical  order.    He  never  propounded  a  creed, 
confession  of  faith,  or  body  of  divinity.    He  treated 
men  always  as  spiritual  beings ;  death  as  an  inci- 
dent in  life,  not  as  the  end  of  it ;  and  God  as  the 
Father  of  mankind,  in  whose  love  is  the  hope  of 
life.     But   he    did   not   argue    even    these    simple 
theological  propositions,  except  when  he  was  con- 

^  Mark  vi.  7  ;  Luke  ix.  1,  "  Luke  x.  1. 


18        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

fronted  by  sj^eelal  questioning.  If  we  read  with  a 
fresli  and  open  mind  liis  instructions,  we  shall  per- 
haps be  surprised  to  discover  how  little  there  is  in 
them  about  what  we  ordinarily  call  religion,  — 
church-going,  Bible-reading,  forms  of  public  wor- 
ship, doctrines  of  theology.  His  first  recorded 
sermon  —  the  one  at  Nazareth- — was  his  affirma- 
tion that  deliverance  was  at  hand,  and  would  prove 
to  be  a  deliverance  of  all  humanity,  Gentile  as  well 
as  Jew.  His  second  sermon  —  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  —  was  an  exposition  of  the  laws  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth,  the  true  theocracy. 
In  it  he  told  his  discijjles  how  they  should  settle 
their  quarrels,  control  their  tongues,  deal  with 
their  enemies,  carry  themselves  in  their  industries. 
The  group  of  parables  by  the  seashore  —  consti- 
tuting what  we  may  call  his  third  great  sermon  — 
illustrates  the  growth  of  this  kingdom :  it  comes 
gradually,  like  a  plant  from  a  seed  ;  it  depends  on 
the  soil,  that  is,  on  the  community.  It  grows  up 
with  an  antagonistic  kingdom  of  unrighteousness, 
as  the  wheat  grows  up  in  the  same  field  with  the 
tares  ;  it  grows  by  a  process  of  agitation,  as  the 
leaven  or  yeast  makes  the  whole  lump  of  dough  to 
ferment.  His  fourth  great  sermon  —  in  the  sjoia- 
gogue  at  Capernaum,  on  the  Bread  of  Life  —  is  an 
exposition  of  the  secret  of  the  power  of  this  king- 
dom, —  God  in  the  hearts  of  men.  But  in  them 
all,  as  in  the  more  fragmentary  reports  of  his 
lesser  discourses  and  his  conversations,  the  burden 
of  his  instruction  is  present  life,  —  how  to  make  it 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  19 

pure,  noble,  beneficent.  What  does  life  mean? 
what  does  patience  mean  ?  what  do  the  rich  owe  to 
the  poor,  the  strong  to  the  weak,  the  wise  to  the 
ignorant?  on  what  principles  ought  men  to  admin- 
ister the  property  they  possess?  what  are  their 
relations  and  their  obligations  to  one  another  ?  — 
these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  questions  to  which 
his  teaching  is  chiefly  devoted. 

In  his  life-work  he  was  more  than  a  social 
reformer,  —  he  was  a  social  revolutionist.  His 
methods  were  spiritual,  not  temporal;  peaceful, 
not  warlike  :  but  his  object  was  revolution.  The 
complaint  subsequently  brought  against  his  disci- 
ples, that  they  were  turning  the  world  upside 
down,  was  a  just  complaint.  It  was  because  Christ 
set  himself  against  the  established  order  that  the 
established  order  determined  upon  and  accom- 
plished his  death.  That  order  was  one  of  hier- 
archy in  the  church  and  aristocracy  in  the  state. 
There  were  few  rich  and  many  poor,  few  learned 
and  many  ignorant.  Christ  did  not  merely  teach 
that  the  rich  should  contribute  of  their  affluence 
to  the  poor,  and  the  wise  should  offer  occasional 
instruction  to  the  ignorant :  he  set  himself  to  re- 
verse the  prevalent  social  condition,  —  to  make  the 
many  rich  and  the  many  wise.  He  taught  that  the 
whole  human  race  —  not  a  few  at  the  top ;  not  the 
learned,  the  rich,  the  aristocratic ;  not  the  mem- 
bers of  a  small  and  favored  nation,  the  Jews,  but 
the  whole  human  race  —  is  to  be  educated,  trans- 
formed, enfranchised,  enriched.^     He  reversed  the 

1  Matt.  ix.  lO-lo  ;  Luke  xv. 


20         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

world's  standard  of  values.  He  taught  that 
wealth  consists  in  character,  not  in  possession.^ 
He  reversed  the  world's  measure  of  greatness. 
"  He  that  is  greatest  among  you,"  he  said,  "  shall 
be  your  servant."  ^  He  affirmed  the  brotherhood 
of  the  human  race,  and  challenged  alike  the  pre- 
judices of  the  aristocracy  by  his  companionship 
with  the  poor,  the  ignorant  and  the  outcast,  and 
the  prejudices  of  the  common  people  by  his  com- 
mendation of  virtue  in  the  pagan.^ 

The  world  has  always  bowed  at  the  shrine  of 
wealth.  To  wealth  Christ  paid  no  deference. 
His  congregations  were  composed  chiefly  of  the 
common  people  ;  his  special  friends  and  companions 
were  chosen  from  them.  Among  them  he  found 
his  social  fellowship.  The  rich  man  who  fared 
sumptuously  every  day,  oblivious  of  the  poverty 
about  him,  he  portrayed  as  in  another  life  suf- 
fering torments  in  hell ;  the  outcast  beggar,  as 
in  Paradise.^  The  shrewd  and  crafty  capitalist, 
whose  only  notion  of  prosperity  was  accumulation 
and  still  accumulation,  he  called  a  "  fool."  ^  A 
corrupt  ring  had  installed  themselves  in  the  outer 
court  of  the  temple,  turned  it  into  a  market-place, 
and  driven  the  common  people  out.  With  flash- 
ing eye  he  turned  upon  the  traffickers  and  single- 
handed  drove  them  away.^  Personally  he  shared 
the  poverty  of  the  poor  with  them,  and  required 

1  Luke  xii.  16-21.  -  Matt,  xx,  26 ;  xxiii.  11. 

3  Matt.  viii.  10,  11 ;  Luke  iv.  24-27.     *  Luke  xvi.  19-31. 
5  John  ii.  13-22. 


THE    FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  21 

those  who  wished  to  unite  themselves  to  him  in  the 
innermost  circle  of  his  friends  to  do  the  same ; 
much  in  the  spirit  in  which  to-day  a  Salvationist 
workins:  in  the  slums  submits  to  the  conditions  of 
the  life  which  she  endeavors  to  transform. 

He  paid  as  little  attention  to  the  ecclesiastical 
aristocracy  in  the  church  as  to  the  aristocracy  of 
wealth  in  society.  The  established  order  was  both 
social  and  ecclesiastical,  but  more  the  latter  than 
the  former,  for  it  was  intrenched  behind  and  allied 
with  a  superstitious  conception  of  religion  and  a 
reverence  for  material  things.  Carlyle  and  Froude 
have  both  admirably  traced  the  rise  and  develop- 
ment of  idolatry ;  they  have  shown  how  men  begin 
by  making  an  image  or  a  picture  to  represent  God, 
a  ritual  or  temple  to  represent  worship,  a  creed  or 
a  theology  to  represent  truth,  and  have  ended  by 
worshiping  the  picture,  the  temple,  the  creed. 
This  is  idolatry,  —  the  substitution  of  the  eidolon, 
or  symbol,  for  the  reality.  It  is  equally  idolatry 
whether  the  symbol  is  a  crucifix,  a  meeting-house, 
or  a  printed  creed.  In  the  first  century  the  Jewish 
nation  professed  to  hate  idolatry  with  a  perfect 
hatred,  but  the  established  order  was  founded  on 
idolatry.  The  temple,  with  its  attendant  system  of 
sacrifices,  was  the  centre  of  all  worship ;  and  the 
devout  Jew  could  hardly  conceive  that  religion 
could  survive  if  the  temple  were  destroyed,  the  sac- 
rifices were  to  cease,  the  priesthood  were  to  be 
discontinued,  or  the  traditional  theology  inherited 
from  the  fathers  were  to  be  changed.     Christ  fore- 


22        CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

told  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  and  subverted 
the  very  foundations  of  this  idolatrous  faith  by  de- 
claring that  God  can  be  worshiped  at  any  time  and 
in  any  place,  if  the  heart  in  sincerity  and  simplicity 
seeks  for  Him.^  He  ignored  the  sacrificial  system 
which  had  grown  up  in  the  temple,  which  was  re- 
garded as  a  necessary  condition  of  receiving  for- 
giveness for  sin,  and  on  the  maintenance  of  which 
the  perpetuity  of  the  priesthood  depended.  Tra- 
ditional theology  taught  that  sin  is  a  cause  sufficient 
for  hating  the  sinful.  Christ  treated  sin  as  a  dis- 
ease which  ought  to  evoke  our  tenderest  pity  and 
compassion.  Traditional  theology  taught  that  God's 
hatred  of  the  sinner  must  be  appeased  by  sacrifice 
before  the  sinner  can  be  forgiven,  and  out  of  the 
freewill  expressions  of  penitence  and  gratitude  era- 
bodied  in  the  ancient  sacrifices  ^  the  Jews  had  de- 
veloped a  comjjulsory  sacrificial  system,  enforced 
by  threats  of  eternal  vengeance  if  it  was  not  recog- 
nized and  observed.  Christ  represented  God  as  a 
Father  going  forth  to  meet  the  repentant  and  re- 
turning son  while  he  yet  timidly  waited  afar  off.'^ 
In  no  single  instance  did  Christ  send  the  repentant 
sinner  to  the  priest  or  the  temple  to  offer  a  sacrifice 
for  his  sin  ;  he  simply  bade  him  go  in  peace  and 
sin  no  more.* 

1  John  iv.  23,  24. 

^  "  He  shall  offer  it  of  his  own  voluntary  will."     Lev.  i.  3. 

^  Luke  XV.  20.     Greek  :   "  held  himself  afar  ojBP." 

^  Matthew  viii.  4 ;  Luke  xvii.  14,  are  not  exceptions :  the 
leper  was  not  directed  to  offer  a  sacrifice  to  secure  f org-iveness ; 
he  was  to  show  himself  to  the  priest,  as  the  lawful  health  officer, 


THE   FOUNDER    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  23 

With  the  compulsory  sacrificial  system,  and 
rooted  in  the  same  false  conception  of  God  and 
life,  had  grown  up  an  elaborate  system  of  fasts,  or- 
ganized for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  divine  favor. 
The  orthodox  Jew  fasted  on  the  fourth  day  of  the 
month,  because  on  that  day  Nebuchadnezzar  had 
captured  the  temple  ;  on  the  fifth  day  of  the  month, 
because  on  that  day  the  temple  had  been  burned ; 
on  the  seventh  day  of  the  month,  because  on  that 
day  the  Jewish  governor  had  been  murdered ;  on 
the  tenth  day  of  the  month,  because  on  that  day 
the  Chaldeans  had  besieged  Jerusalem ;  on  the 
fifth  day  of  each  week,  because  on  that  day  Moses 
went  up  into  the  mountain  for  the  law ;  and  on  the 
second  day  of  each  week,  because  on  that  day  Moses 
had  brought  the  law  down.  Thus  religion  was 
clothed  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  Jesus  disregarded, 
and  encouraged  his  disciples  to  disregard,  this  sys- 
tem of  fasting.  He  brought  back  the  old  spirit  of 
the  Jewish  law,  which  made  every  Sabbath  a  feast 
day,  and  every  great  religious  occasion  a  festival.^ 
The  religious  life  he  was  accustomed  to  compare 
to  a  great  feast  to  which  every  one  was  invited  who 
chose  to  come.^  Those  who  were  not  prepared  to 
come  had  garments  provided  for  them  by  their 
host. 

Traditional  theology   he  treated  with  as   little 

in  order  that  the  cure  might  be  officially  recognized,  and  the  ban 
which  had  been  pronounced  against  him  might  be  taken  off.  It 
was  faith  in  Christ,  not  sacrifice,  which  made  whole.    Luke  xvii.  19. 

1  Exod.  xxiii.  14-17  ;  Lev.  xxiii. ;   Deut.  xvi. 

2  Matt.  xxii.  9 ;  Luke  xiv.  16-24. 


24        CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

respect  as  ecclesiastical  ceremonialism.  The  priest 
and  tlie  Levite,  wlio  passed  the  wounded  traveler 
by,  he  condemned ;  the  heretical  Samaritan,  who 
went  out  of  his  way  to  relieve  the  unfortunate  way- 
farer, he  commended.  The  publican,  who  came  to 
the  temple  seeking  help  to  escape  from  his  sin, 
Christ  portrayed  as  more  acceptable  to  God  than 
the  orthodox  Pharisee,  moral  in  his  life  and  scru- 
pulous in  his  religious  observances,  who  boasted  in 
pious  prayer  of  his  excellencies. ^  His  illustrations 
of  religious  life  were  not  taken  from  the  temple 
courts  or  the  synagogue  services.  His  pictures  of 
the  religious  man  were,  a  farmer  sowing  his  seed 
in  all  soils,  a  fisherman  casting  his  net  into  the  sea,^ 
an  honest  steward  doing  his  best  with  his  employ- 
er's estate,^  a  merchantman  who  finding  a  great 
pearl  did  not  covet  it,  but  sold  all  that  he  had  to 
become  its  honest  owner.^ 

This  religion  of  the  common  life,  and  therefore 
of  the  common  people,  Jesus  taught  explicitly  was 
for  all  peoples.  The  Jews  believed  that  they  were 
the  chosen  of  God,  and  that  all  other  nations  were 
reprobate.  The  result  of  a  narrow  conception  of 
God  is  always  a  narrow  conception  of  humanity 
and  a  narrow  conception  of  righteousness.  Christ 
assailed  this  threefold  narrowness  with  equal  cour- 
age, whether  it  showed  itself  in  a  false  theology, 
an  artificial  morality,  or  in  a  race  prejudice.  In 
that  very  first  sermon  of  which  we  have  any  record, 

1  Luke  X.  29-37 ;  xviii.  9-14.  "^  Matt.  xiii.  3,  47,  45. 

^  Luke  xii.  42. 


THE   FOUNDER    OF    CHRISTIANITY.  25 

and  in  that  very  synagogue  at  Nazareth  ^  where  as 
a  boy  he  had  been  accustomed  to  worship,  he  re- 
minded the  congregation  that  God  had  passed  the 
Jews  by  and  selected  a  woman  from  Tyre  and 
Sidon  for  mercy,  and  again  passed  the  Jews  by  to 
select  a  man  from  Syria  for  mercy ;  and  with  one 
consent  the  congregation  rose  in  their  rage,  cast 
him  out  of  the  synagogue,  and  would  fain  have 
killed  him.  The  spirit  of  this  discourse  appears 
again  and  again  in  his  teaching,  and  reaches  its 
natural  climax  in  his  last  commission  to  his  disci- 
ples to  go  into  all  the  world  and  proclaim  the  glad 
tidings  to  every  creature.^ 

However  Christ  may  have  been  misunderstood 
since,  he  was  not,  in  this  one  fundamental  respect, 
misunderstood  in  his  own  time.  The  common  peo- 
ple of  Palestine  perceived  in  him  their  friend  and 
leader.  They  responded  to  his  call,  flocked  about 
him,  were  eager  listeners  to  his  inspiring  teaching, 
and  would  have  crowned  him  their  king  ^  and  made 
him  help  them  in  a  violent  revolution  against  their 
oppressors,  if  he  would  have  consented.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  rich,  the  aristocratic,  the  learned, 
the  social,  political,  and  ecclesiastical  leaders  of  the 
time,  understood  equally  well  that  the  success  of  his 
mission  involved  a  social  revolution.*  They  saw 
that  he  was  a  leveler,  that  if  he  succeeded  their 
power  and  prestige  were  gone,  and  they  joined  all 
their  forces  against  him ;    not  because  they  were 

1  Luke  iv.  16 ;  vii.  9.  2  ^att.  xxviii.  19,  20. 

3  John  vi.  15,  ^  John  xi.  49,  50» 


26        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

unwilling  that  men  should  be  taught  patiently  to 
bear  oppression,  poverty,  and  ignorance  in  this 
present  life,  sustained  by  the  hope  of  some  better 
condition  in  a  life  to  come,  but  because  they  rightly 
perceived  that  the  life  which  Christ  was  imparting 
would  make  the  men  who  received  it  no  longer  sub- 
missive to  oppression. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  my  purpose  in  this  volume 
to  trace  any  further  in  detail  the  life  and  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  must  suffice  thus  briefly  to 
show  that  a  consideration  of  his  teachings,  his  life, 
the  elements  of  his  popularity,  and  the  causes  of 
the  bitter  hostility  to  him,  all  combine  to  demon- 
strate that  he  came  as  the  organizer  of  a  new  social 
order,  that  in  Christ's  birth  was  born  a  new  social 
kingdom. 


CHAPTER  n. 

CHRISTIANITY   AND   DEMOCRACY. 

Instructed  in  the  principles  of  a  new  social 
order,  inspired  by  a  new  and  divine  life  of  faith, 
hope,  and  love,  the  disciples  went  forth  to  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  on  the  earth.  Of  course  they 
could  not  believe  that  they  were  to  establish  this 
future  kingdom.  It  transcended  the  possibilities 
of  their  faith  to  believe  that  they,  only  twelve  in 
number,  could  face  the  whole  pagan  world  and  re- 
construct it.  When  they  did  preach  and  men 
heard  their  calling,  it  was  only  the  slaves  and 
the  freedmen,  the  poor  and  the  outcast,  that  consti- 
tuted their  congregations.  How  could  they  expect 
to  revolutionize  the  Roman  Empire,  break  its  yoke 
asunder,  set  aside  imperial  despotism,  and  bring  in 
a  reign  of  justice,  liberty,  and  peace  on  the  earth  ? 
It  was  impossible  that  they  should  believe  this,  and 
they  did  not.  They  believed  the  Messiah  would 
come  again  in  great  glory.  They  waited  and 
watched  for  that  coming,  and  grew  heartsick  be- 
cause he  did  not  come.  Little  by  little  the  church 
abandoned  its  hope  of  a  world-wide  kingdom,  drew 
a  line  between  itself  and  the  world,  and  applied 


28         CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  teachings  of  their  Lord  only  to  the  church.  It 
divided  men  into  two  classes,  the  religions  and  the 
secular,  and  considered  Christ's  laws  applicable 
only  to  the  religious.  But  even  the  church  was 
apparently  not  ready  for  principles  so  radical. 
Hence  men  separated  themselves  from  the  church, 
organized  religious  brotherhoods,  and  in  these 
brotherhoods  endeavored  to  carry  out  the  spirit 
and  the  principles  of  Christ's  instructions.  We 
look  back  upon  those  brotherhoods  with  disdain, 
but  we  do  them  wrong.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how 
any  man  could  have  done  more  to  promote  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  on  the  earth  than  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi  did  with  his  Brotherhood  of  the  Poor.^ 
His  methods  were  not  always  wise,  his  teachings 
were  not  altogether  Christ's ;  but  still  the  spirit 
of  Christ  was  in  them.  Monasteries  were  organ- 
ized into  which  the  kingdom  of  God  mioht  retreat. 
If  we  compare  those  monasteries  with  the  life  of 
to-day,  they  seem  to  be  evil ;  if  we  comjjare  them 
with  the  life  which  surged  around  them,  they  were 
admirable.  Everywhere  else  lust  reigned ;  in  these 
monasteries,  during  their  early  history,  comparative 
purity.  Everywhere  else  ignorance  reigned  ;  these 
monasteries  were  the  custodians  of  the  libraries 
and  the  treasure-houses  of  learning.  Everywhere 
else  rapine  reigned ;  these  monasteries  were  the 
almoners  of  charity,  —  charity  towards  one  another, 
charity  to  the  world  without.^ 

^  See  Life  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  by  Paul  Sabatier. 

2  Monasteries  and  Monasticism  :  their  Service  and  Benefit.     See 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  29 

While  thus  some  men  in  the  church  endeavored 
to  oro:anize  brotherhoods  in    accordance  with  the 

CD 

spirit  of  Christ's  teachings,  other  men  undertook, 
in  sporadic  efforts,  to  carry  out  those  principles 
in  local  communities.  The  Waldenses,  in  their 
Italian  valleys,  endeavored  to  found  such  a  brother- 
hood. Savonarola  died  in  the  endeavor  to  make 
Florence  a  Christian  city.  Calvin  undertook  to 
make  Geneva  at  once  a  Christian  state  and  a 
Christian  church,  and  required  that  every  citi- 
zen should  subscribe  to  simple  articles  of  faith. 
The  Puritans,  borrowing  this  idea  from  Calvin, 
came  across  the  sea  to  found,  not  a  community  in 
which  every  man  should  worship  as  he  i^leased,  but, 
what  was  almost  its  exact  antipodes,  a  revived 
and  renewed  theocracy  borrowed  from  the  Old 
Testament.^  These  sporadic  efforts  failed ;  for  the 
most  part,  because  in  them    men    attempted,  not 

Charles  Kingsley,  Eoman  and  Teuton,  clis.  viii.  and  ix.  ;  Sir 
James  Stephen,  Essays  in  Ecclesiastical  Biography,  vol.  i.  p.  371 ; 
Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  book  iii.  eh.  iv.  §  34 ; 
Milman,  Xaii'n  Christianity,  \ol.  ii.  pp.  20G,  207;  Stubbs,  Const. 
Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.  pp.  222,  224. 

1  Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  vol.  v.  p.  150  fF.;  R.  C.  French, 
Lectures  on  Mediceval  Church  History ;  Villari,  Savonarola,  i.  260, 
339;  ii.  132-140;  Mrs.  Oliphant,  Makers  of  Florence,  eh.  xi. ; 
Savonarola  as  a  Politician  ;  H.  H.  Milman,  Savonarola,  Eras- 
mus, and  other  Essays ;  Leaders  of  the  Beformation,  p.  107  ;  Paul 
Henry,  Life  of  Calvin,  i.  351,  407.  A  confession  was  prepared 
by  Farel,  in  conjunction  with  Calvin,  at  Geneva.  It  consisted  of 
twenty-one  articles,  and  in  1530  the  citizens  were  oblig'ed  to 
swear  to  this,  but  it  possessed  no  proper  symbolic  authority. 
Ellis,  The  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts,  eh.  v. ;  The  Biblical 
Commonwealth. 


30         CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

to  inspire  government  with  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
but  by  governmental  action  to  coerce  men  into 
loyalty  to  Christ.     And  that  has  always  failed. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  trace  the  historic 
process  by  which  the  pagan  world  was  gradually 
transformed  into  Christendom,  the  forces  of  im- 
perial Rome  into  the  imperfectly  Christianized 
forces  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States.  It 
must  suffice  to  put  in  contrast  these  two  empires, 
and  to  indicate,  by  the  contrast,  both  the  progress 
which  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  made  in  the  world, 
and  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to  advance 
towards  its  consummation. 

For  both  the  parallel  and  the  contrast  between 
the  Roman  Empire  and  the  American  Republic 
are  striking.  Like  imperial  Rome,  the  Republic 
extends  from  a  northern  to  an  almost  tropical 
zone ;  includes  a  great  variety  of  soils,  climates, 
and  productions ;  embraces  a  vast  and  hetero- 
geneous population  ;  is  composed  of  separate  states, 
each  with  its  own  peculiar  political  institutions 
and  social  customs ;  permits  a  great  variety  of 
religious  creeds  and  forms  of  worship  to  grow  up 
peacefully  side  by  side  ;  it  possesses  a  territory 
considerably  larger  than  that  of  ancient  Rome,  and 
probably  will  possess,  by  the  middle  of  the  next 
century,  a  population  not  inferior  in  numbers. 
But  here  the  parallel  ends.  In  the  three  most 
fundamental  elements  of  national  life,  these  two 
empires  are  in  strong  contrast :  in  their  religious 
and    educational    institutions,    in    their     political 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  31 

organization,   and    in  their    industrial  and    social 
life. 

I.  The  object  of  the  religion  of  Rome  was  not 
to  make  men  better  or  happier.  Moralists  there 
were  whose  teachings  embody  noble  ethical  stand- 
ards. But  we  look  in  vain  for  such  a  teacher 
among  either  the  priests  or  the  prophets  of  the 
pagan  empire.  Its  religious  institutions  had  no 
relation  to  the  moral  life.^  Religion  did  not  even 
claim  to  be  ethical  in  its  spirit  or  its  purpose. 
That  purpose  was  either  to  appease  the  wrath  of 
angry  gods  or  to  win  the  favor  of  corruptible  gods. 
Religion  was,  therefore,  a  special  function  fulfilled 
by  a  special  class.  The  religious  services  were 
performed  for  the  community  by  a  priesthood. 
Remnants  of  this  pagan  conception  of  religion 
remain  in  religious  doctrines  and  religious  forms 
to  the  ]3resent  day.  A  few  years  ago  I  was  spend- 
ing a  week  in  a  quiet  village  in  Northern  England, 
A  daily  service  was  held  in  the  village  church. 
My  companion  went  out  one  afternoon  to  attend 
this  service.  She  was  a  little  late,  and  entered 
very  quietly,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  worshipers, 
only  to  find  the  priest  reading  the  service,  "  Dearly 
beloved  brethren,  the  Scripture  moveth  us  in  sun- 
dry places  to  acknowledge  and  confess  our  mani- 
fold sins  and  wickedness,  .  .  .  yet  ought  we  chiefly 
so  to  do  when  we  assemble  and  meet  together," 
.  .  .  and  there  was  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  in 

1  Lecky's  History  of  European  Morals^  i.  176  ;  Uhlhorn,  Conflict 
\>f  Christianity  and  Heathenism,  book  i.  ch.  i.  p.  55. 


32        CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  house.  Yet  it  may  be  assumed  that,  to  the 
honest  priest,  there  was  no  incongruity  in  this 
circumstance :  to  him  the  priestly  service  was 
rendered,  not  by  but  for  the  people ;  not  to  them, 
but  on  their  behalf.  Religious  service  was  an 
official  function.  Similar  in  sj^yirit  is  the  attempt 
of  certain  modern  ecclesiastics  to  do  the  thinking 
for  the  people,  frame  the  creeds  for  them,  tell 
them  what  they  should  believe,  and  encourage 
their  investigation  of  religious  problems,  only  upon 
the  condition  first  exacted  that  they  will  arrive 
at  no  other  conclusions  than  those  which  have  been 
already  formulated  for  them  by  their  religious 
teachers.  Religious  thinking  in  the  one  case,  and 
religious  worship  in  the  other,  is  an  official  func- 
tion, to  be  jjerformed  by  a  religious  class. 

Yet  clearly  this  conception  of  religion  is  a  sur- 
vival of  the  past.  Indeed,  it  is  claimed  so  to  be. 
The  priest  desires  to  go  back  to  tTerusalem  for  the 
pattern  of  his  service ;  the  theologian,  to  the  six- 
teenth century  for  the  model  of  his  creed.  The 
modern  tendency  is  quite  different,  and  is  so  re- 
garded, alike  by  those  who  lament  the  difference 
as  an  indication  of  degeneracy  and  those  who  re- 
joice in  it  as  an  evidence  of  advance.  The  blood- 
less sacrifice  of  the  mass  still  remains  the  shadow 
of  an  ancient  sacrificial  system  ;  and  the  imitation 
of  that  mass  in  some  Protestant  churches,  the 
mere  shadow  of  a  shadow :  but  in  the  main  the 
effort  of  modern  religion  is  not  to  appease  an  an- 
gry God,  nor  to  win  the   favor  of  a  purchasable 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  33 

one.  Religion  has  become  in  its  object  philan- 
thropic. Ruskin  ^  rightly  interprets  the  spirit  of 
the  age,  whether  he  rightly  interprets  the  spirit  of 
the  New  Testament  or  not :  "  Do  justice  and  judg- 
ment !  that 's  your  Bible  order  ;  that 's  the  '  Service 
of  God,'  — not  praying  nor  psalm-singing."  Pray- 
ing is  seeking  strength  for  service ;  psalm-singing 
is  giving  thanks  for  the  privilege  of  serving  :  but 
the  service  is  in  hospitals,  mission  schools,  church 
schools,  college  settlements,  boys'  clubs,  girls'  clubs, 
political  and  social  reforms,  —  a  thousand  philan- 
thropies, some  material,  some  intellectual,  some 
spiritual ;  but  all  seeking  one  great  end  —  the  pro- 
motion of  human  welfare  and  human  happiness. 
The  modern  conception  of  Christianity  appears 
to  me  more  Christian  than  the  one  which  it  is 
suj)planting.  Turn  again  to  that  first  sermon  of 
Christ's  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth :  "  And 
there  was  delivered  unto  him  the  book  of  the 
prophet  Esaias.  And  when  he  had  opened  the 
book,  he  found  the  place  where  it  was  written, 
The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he 
hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ; 
he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken  -  hearted,  to 
preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering 
of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised.  .  .  .  And  he  began  to  say  unto  them, 
This  day  is  this  scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears." 
In  all  this  there  is  no  suggestion  of  appeasing  the 

1  Riiskin,  Works  (Crowell  &  Co.),    The  Crown   of  Wild  Olive, 
p.  48, 


34        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

wrath  or  winning  the  favor  of  God.  It  is  not  for 
this  he  came  into  the  world  :  it  is  to  bring  into  the 
world  the  life  of  God,  —  the  life  that  really  is,  the 
eternal  life.  The  spirit  of  this  sermon  has  entered 
the  church,  and  has  gradually  changed  the  avowed 
function  of  religion  from  the  selfish  one  of  seeking 
the  personal  salvation  of  the  worshiper  to  the  unsel- 
fish one  of  inspiring  him  to  become  a  savior  of  others. 
With  this  change  in  the  conception  of  religion 
has  come  a  change  in  the  organization  of  the 
church.  Autocracy  dies  hard,  but  it  is  surely 
though  slowly  dying.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  succeeds  in  maintaining  an  autocratic  or- 
ganization in  a  democratic  age,  because  its  hier- 
archy is  wise  enough  to  allow  great  flexibility  of 
local  administration.  The  laity  do  not  vote,  but 
there  are  other  methods  of  influence  than  a  ballot. 
The  recent  history  of  land-owning  in  Ireland  and 
of  the  public  school  question  in  the  United  States 
indicates  the  extent  to  which  the  Roman  Catholic 
hierarchy  are  influenced  by  the  people  whose  eccle- 
siastical rulers  they  are.  The  statesmanship  of 
Leo  XIII.  has  been  shown  in  nothing  more  strik- 
ingly than  in  his  wise  and  eflicient  endeavor  to 
adapt  the  church  to  a  democratic  age  and  demo- 
cratic needs.  Outside  of  Romanism,  even  the 
forms  of  autocracy  are  not  successfully  maintained. 
The  Salvation  Army  is,  indeed,  constructed  on  the 
principles  of  an  imperial  despotism.  But,  since 
this  volume  was   begun,    that   army    has   broken 

i  John  X.  10 ;  xvii.  1-3  ;  1  Tim.  vi.  1!) :  ''  life  indeed,"  Rev.  Ver. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  35 

asunder  in  the  United  States,  and  the  indications 
are  unmistakable  that  its  autocratic  methods  will 
not,  even  in  England,  long-  survive  the  general 
who  has  adopted  them.  In  all  other  ecclesiastical 
organizations  government  varies  from  that  of  a  rep- 
resentative republic  to  that  of  a  pure  democracy. 

Closely  connected  with  this  change  in  the  spirit 
of  religion,  and  in  the  nature  of  its  ecclesiastical 
institutions,  is  the  growth  of  religious  organizations 
dissociated  from  all  hierarchical  control,  and  the 
employment  of  means  of  moral  cultivation  wholly 
outside  the  church.  As  illustrations  of  such  or- 
ganizations, may  be  mentioned  such  religious  but 
unecclesiastical  societies  as  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association,  the  Societies  of  Christian  Endeavor 
and  the  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  King.  It  is 
not  strange  that  these  and  other  purely  democratic 
organizations  are  looked  upon  with  some  suspicion 
by  professional  ecclesiastics  ;  and  it  must  be  con- 
fessed by  their  warmest  friends  that  they  exhibit 
some  of  the  defects  which  appear  to  be  inherent  in 
democracies  of  every  type :  but  it  can  hardly  be 
questioned  by  their  severest  critics,  that  they  are 
likely  to  prove  permanent  additions  to  the  religious 
force  of  the  country.  As  illustrations  of  uneccle- 
siastical instruments  of  moral  culture,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  religious  newspapers,  some  of  which  are 
under  church  control,  but  others  of  which  are 
wholly  untrammeled ;  and  contributions  to  the 
discussion  of  religious  problems  by  writers  as  ab- 


S6        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

solutely  independent  of  all  church  influence  as 
Matthew  Arnold  and  Professor  Huxley.  Systems 
of  examination  and  ordination  still  put  certain  per- 
haps quite  legitimate  restrictions  upon  the  pulpit, 
but  there  is  no  similar  censorship  of  the  press ; 
and  Renan  and  Strauss  are  quite  as  free  to  write 
their  interpretation  of  the  life  and  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ  as  are  Hanna  or  Farrar.  Whittier's 
"  Eternal  Goodness  "  has  probably  preached  to  a 
greater  audience  than  any  modern  sermon,  and 
each  reader  is  left  to  judge  for  himself  of  its 
orthodoxy.  Balfour  discusses  the  "  Foimdations  of 
Belief  "  and  Drummond  the  ''  Ascent  of  Man,"  and 
there  is  no  recognized  authority  to  decide  whether 
either  volume  should  be  put  in  an  Index  Expur- 
gatorius.  When  a  feeble  attempt  is  made  by 
ecclesiastical  critics,  or  a  stronger  attempt  by  an 
ecclesiastical  association,  to  place  a  dangerous  book 
under  ban,  the  only  result  is  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  its  readers.  It  was  the  denunciation  of 
"  Robert  Elsmere  "  which  gave  to  it  its  phenomenal 
circulation.  It  is  easy  to  see  whither  all  this 
leads,  —  to  a  freedom  of  thought,  of  teaching,  of 
service  both  within  and  without  the  church,  tran- 
scending anything  known  in  the  past.  The  eyes  of 
the  blind  are  opened  and  tlie  limbs  of  the  paralyzed 
unloosed  ;  and  the  one  can  never  be  blinded,  nor 
the  other  put  into  chains  again. 

This  transformation  in  the  concei3tion  of  reli- 
gion from  a  special  function  to  a  universal  life, 
of  religious  institutions  from   an  autocratic   to  a 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   DEMOCRACY.  37 

deiiiociatic  form,  and  of  religious  ministry  from  a 
priestly  administration  to  a  universal  philanthropy, 
has  been  accompanied  by  a  similar  transformation 
in  education.  The  schools  of  imperial  Rome  prac- 
tically confined  their  curriculum  to  rhetoric  and 
athletics  ;  in  ancient  Greece,  music  and  art  were 
added.  Later,  philosophy  was  taught,  but  only  to 
insignificant  numbers.  There  was  no  provision 
for  public  education ;  pupils  were  relatively  few ; 
education  was  for  special  classes.^  The  theatre 
and  the  forum  rendered  to  these  ancient  peoples  a 
service  somewhat  analogous  to  that  rendered  in 
our  time  by  the  press,  but  inefficiently  and  not 
extensively.  Christianity  borrowed  the  synagogue 
school  from  Judaism  and  extended  it.  The  mon- 
asteries preserved  the  literature  of  the  ancients 
from  destruction ;  the  monks  were  the  printing- 
presses  of  Europe  before  the  printing-press  was 
invented;  parish  schools  were  established  in  con- 
nection with  the  churches,  and  higher  seminaries 
and  universities  in  connection  with  the  convents 
and  monasteries.^     Gradually,  as  the  state  became 

1  See  Oscar  Browning-,  Hist,  of  Ed.  Theories.,  eh.  ii. ;  on  "  Roman 
Education."  "  The  whole  education  of  a  Greek  youth  was  divided 
into  three  parts,  —  g-ramraar,  music,  and  gymnastics,  to  which 
Aristotle  adds  a  fourth,  the  art  of  drawing-  or  painting-.  Gymnas- 
tics, however,  was  thought  by  the  ancients  a  matter  of  such  im- 
portance that  this  part  of  education  alone  occupied  as  much  time 
and  attention  as  all  the  others  put  tog-ether."  Smith's  Diet,  of 
Greek  and  Roman  Antiq..,  art.  "  Gymnasium."  Comp.  ibid..,  art. 
"  Psedagogus  ;  "  The  Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Eomans,  by  Guhl  and 
Koner,  212  ff. 

2  See  Milman,  Latin  Christianity,  bk.  iii.  ch.  xi. ;  bk.  iv=  eh. 
iii.  ;  Mrs.  Jameson,  Legends  of  the  Monastic  Orders.,  pp.  3-5. 


38        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

inspired  by  the  humane  spirit  of  Christianity,  it 
preferred  to  assume  the  education  of  the  young ; 
gradually,  sometimes  reluctantly,  sometimes  will- 
ingly, the  church  relinquished  that  function  to  the 
state,  or  shared  it  with  the  state.  Thus  out  of  the 
synagogue  schools  in  Palestine  have  grown  the 
magnificent  school  systems  of  France,  Germany, 
England,  and  the  United  States.  With  all  their 
defects,  they  equip  the  children  of  the  poor  for 
life,  and,  by  teaching  them  to  think,  prepare  them 
for  a  sturdy  and  intelligent  independence.  In 
these  respects  this  movement  for  universal  educa- 
tion has  made  great  strides  during  the  present 
century.  In  England,  by  the  board  school  sys- 
tem, the  people  have  undertaken  to  provide  ade- 
quate education  for  all  the  children  of  school  age 
who  are  not  provided  for  by  parochial  schools.  In 
the  United  States  the  public  school  system  has 
been  extended  throughout  the  Southern  States, 
where  previous  to  the  Civil  War  there  was  no 
free  school  system  for  the  whites,  and  where  the 
education  of  the  blacks  was  a  penal  offense.  Froe- 
bel's  introduction  of  the  kindergarten  has  done 
more  than  merely  provide  education  for  little  chil- 
dren, who  before  his  day  had  been  allowed  to  grow 
up  untrained,  and  whose  earlier  school  discipline 
was  always  unnatural  and  irksome  and  often  cruel ; 
it  is  bringing  with  it  into  higher  grades  the  natural 
method,  transforming  education  from  a  mechanical 
and  manufacturing  process  into  one  of  normal  and 
healthful  development.     Within  the  century,  both 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  39 

in  this  country  and  in  England,  higher  schools  and 
seminaries  have  been  opened  to  women,  whose 
education  was  before  confined  to  the  art  of  house- 
keeping and  certain  social  accomplishments.  The 
effect  in  the  future  of  having  the  children  in  the 
home  grow  up  in  the  companionship  and  under 
the  inspiration  of  mothers  who  have  not  only 
learned  the  art  of  study,  but  have  acquired  the 
outlook  and  equipment  of  scholarship,  cannot  as 
yet  be  foreseen  by  the  most  optimistic  prophet. 
Mechanical  training  of  hand  and  eye  are  gradu- 
ally —  too  gradually  for  impatient  reformers  — 
being  introduced  into  the  public  school  curriculum. 
The  agitation  for  some  better  ethical  influences  is 
beginning  to  find  a  response  in  public  thought, 
and  the  reaction  against  the  excessive  dread  of 
ecclesiastical  influences  has  unmistakably  begun. 
We  may  reasonably  hope  by  the  middle  of  the 
next  century  to  see  the  kindergarten  in  every  vil- 
lage ;  the  higher  education  as  freely  provided  for 
women  as  for  men ;  the  highest  education  made 
available,  either  by  state  universities  or  by  scholar- 
ships, for  the  poorest  who  have  proved  their  appe- 
tite and  their  capacity  for  it ;  and  education  so 
broadened  in  public  conception  as  to  include  the 
training  of  the  body  on  the  one  hand  and  that  of 
the  conscience  and  the  moral  nature  on  the  other. 

II.  If,  from  this  rapid  survey  of  the  contrast 
between  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  American 
Republic  in  religious  and  educational  aspects,  we 
turn  to  a  comparison  of  the   political  spirit  and 


40        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

institutions  of  the  two,  the  contrast,  if  not  greater, 
is  certainly  more  apparent.  The  Koman  empire 
under  the  Caesars  was  an  absolute  despotism.  Its 
organization  was  essentially  military,  its  emperof 
the  commander-in-chief  of  an  armed  and  encamped 
nation.  The  fate  not  only  of  the  Roman  world, 
but  of  every  individual  in  it,  depended  on  the  will 
of  a  single  autocrat.  "  The  system  of  the  imperial 
government,"  says  Gibbon,  "  as  it  was  instituted 
by  Augustus  and  maintained  by  those  princes  w^ho 
understood  their  own  interest  and  that  of  the 
people,  may  be  defined  an  absolute  monarchy  dis- 
guised by  the  forms  of  a  commonwealth."  ^  The 
authority  of  the  emperor,  nominally  derived  from 
the  Senate,  which  was  composed  of  his  creatures, 
was  really  dependent  upon  the  army,  which  was 
obedient  to  his  will.  It  is  not  necessary  here 
to  recite  the  practical  results  of  this  autocratic 
system ;  they  may  all  be  summed  up  in  four  preg- 
nant sentences  of  Gibbon  :  "  It  is  almost  super- 
fluous to  enumerate  the  unworthy  successors  of 
Augustus.  Their  unparalleled  vices,  and  the  splen- 
did theatre  on  which  they  have  acted,  have  saved 
them  from  oblivion.  The  dark,  unrelenting  Tibe- 
rius, the  furious  Caligula,  the  feeble  Claudius,  the 
profligate  and  cruel  Nero,  the  beastly  Vitellius, 
and  the  inhuman  Domitian  are  condemned  to 
everlasting  infamy.  During  fourscore  years  (ex- 
cepting only  the  short  and  doubtful  respite  of 
Vespasian's    reign),    Rome    groaned   beneath    an 

1  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  ch.  iii.  p.  302. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   DEMOCRACY.  41 

unrelenting  tyranny  which  exterminated  the  an- 
cient forms  of  the  republic,  and  was  fatal  to  almost 
every  virtue  and  every  talent  that  arose  in  that 
unhappy  period."  ^ 

It  was  in  a  province  of  this  empire,  and  under 
this  imperial  form  of  government,  that  Jesus  Christ 
presented  a  very  different  ideal.  "  But  be  not  ye 
called  Rabbi :  for  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ ; 
and  all  ye  are  brethren.  And  call  no  man  your 
father  upon  the  earth;  for  one  is  your  Father, 
which  is  in  heaven.  Neither  be  ye  called  masters ; 
for  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ.  But  he  that 
is  greatest  among  you  shall  be  your  servant."  ^ 
No  wonder  that  the  Roman  Empire  endeavored  by 
fire  and  sword  to  destroy  the  nascent  Christianity, 
as  Herod  had  attempted  to  destroy  the  infant 
Christ.  The  birth  at  Bethlehem  sounded  the  knell 
of  imperial  prerogatives  and  privileged  classes 
throughout  the  world.  The  privileged  classes 
rightly  interpreted  the  meaning  of  the  new  move- 
ment, and  set  themselves  in  vain  to  destroy  it. 
The  words  of  Jesus  Christ  proved  to  be  the  proto- 
plasm of  democracy,  and  nothing  has  been  able  to 
suppress  this  divine  life  and  its  resultant  growth. 
The  most  enthusiastic  believer  in  triumphant  de- 
mocracy cannot  claim  for  the  United  States  that  it 
has  realized  the  purpose  and  prophecy  of  the  prophet 
of  Nazareth,  but  the  dullest  and  most  pessimistic 
disbeliever  can  hardly  fail  to  see  in  the  spirit  and 

1  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  ch.  iii.  p.  317. 

2  Matt,  xxiii.  8-11. 


42         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

constitution  of  the  American  republic,  as  con- 
trasted with  that  of  the  ancient  empire,  the  serious 
though  but  half-conscious  attempt  to  realize  that 
prophecy.  In  so  doing  it  is  furnishing,  not  a  new 
definition,  scarcely  even  a  new  object-lesson,  in 
liberty,  but  an  object-lesson  of  vaster  proportions 
and  with  promise  of  grander  results  than  the  world 
has  ever  seen. 

What  is  liberty  ?  "  The  true  liberty  of  a  man," 
says  Carlyle,  ^  "you  would  say  consisted  in  his 
finding  out,  or  being  forced  to  find  out,  the  right 
path  and  to  walk  therein ;  to  learn  or  be  taught 
what  work  he  was  actually  able  to  do,  and  then,  by 
permission,  persuasion,  or  even  compulsion,  to  be 
set  about  doing  of  the  same.  Oh,  if  thou  really  art 
my  senior,  seigneur,  my  elder,  presbyter,  or  priest 
—  if  thou  art  in  any  way  my  wiser  —  may  a  bene- 
ficent instinct  lead  and  impel  thee  to  conquer  and 
command  me  !  If  thou  do  know  better  than  I  what 
is  good  and  right,  I  conjure  you,  in  the  name  of 
God,  force  me  to  do  it ;  were  it  by  never  such  brass 
collars,  whips,  and  handcuffs,  leave  me  not  to  walk 
over  precipices ! "  No,  this  is  not  liberty :  it  is 
servitude.  Servitude  may  be  better  than  walking- 
over  precipices  ;  it  may  be  in  every  way  justifiable 
if  the  man  be  a  lunatic,  and  is  bent  upon  pushing 
men  weaker  tlian  himself  over  precipices.  But  it 
is  not  liberty.  "  Liberty  is  ability  to  do  as  one 
pleases."  "Freedom  is  the  exemption  from  the 
power  and  control  of  another."  ^     Whether  liberty 

1  Carlyle,  Past  and  Present,  ch.  xiii.  p.  182,  Chapman  &  Hall's  ed. 

2  Webster's  Dictionary. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   DEMOCRACY.  43 

is  wise,  safe,  or  even  possible,  may  be  open  to  discus- 
sion, but  it  is  not  "  brass  collars,  whips,  and  hand- 
cuffs." Aristotle  classifies  governments  as  govern- 
ment by  the  one,  government  by  the  few,  government 
by  the  many.  We  have  added  in  America  a  fourth 
class,  —  self-government.  This  is  liberty.  It  as- 
sumes, not  that  every  man  can  safely  govern  him- 
self, but  first  that  it  is  safer  to  leave  every  man  to 
govern  himself  than  to  put  any  man  under  the 
government  of  another  man,  or  any  class  of  men 
under  the  government  of  another  class ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, that  there  is  such  potentiality  of  self- 
governing  power  in  every  man,  such  capacity  in 
him  to  learn  by  his  own  blunders,  that  he  will 
acquire  a  wisdom  and  a  self-restraint  through  the 
very  perils  of  self-government  which  he  never  will 
acquire  under  the  protecting  government  of  others 
wiser  or  better  than  himself.  Thus  liberty  is  the 
diffusion  of  political  power,  as  despotism  is  its  con- 
centration. Paternalism  calls  one  man  —  Roman 
Imperator  or  Russian  Czar  —  Father  ;  Democracy, 
like  Christianity,  repudiates  paternalism  and  calls 
no  man  Father.  Imperialism  makes  one  man  — 
Roman  Emperor  or  Russian  Czar  —  Master;  De- 
mocracy, like  Christianity,  calls  no  man  Master, 
and  regards  the  greatest  in  the  state  as  the  servants 
of  the  people,  appointed  not  only  to  minister  to 
their  welfare,  but  also  to  be  obedient  to  their 
bidding. 

Democracy  begins  self-government  with  the  in- 
dividual, leaves  him  free  to  do  what  he  will,  to 


44        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

perpetrate   what   blunders   and  inflict   what   self- 
injuries  he  chooses,  so  long  as  he  does  not  directly 
or  indirectly  wrong  his  neighbor  by  his  blunder  or 
his  self -in  jury.     It  extends  this  privilege  so  as  to 
allow   to  the  local  community  —  village,  town,  or 
county  —  the  administration  of  its  own  affairs,  the 
levying  and  expending  of  its  local  taxes,  the  con- 
struction of    its  roads,  the  administration  of    its 
schools.     It  permits  the  State  to  exercise  authority 
only  in  the  domain  in  which  the  interests  of  all  the 
citizens  of  the  State  are  directly  concerned,  and  it 
delegates  authority  to  the  nation  only  in  those  mat- 
ters in  which  no  State  can  act  without  inflicting 
injury  on  its  sister  State.     Thus  under  imperialism 
or  paternalism  the  government  is  derived  from  the 
top,  and  is  distributed  downward  through  agents 
and  sub-agents,  who  in  a  great  empire  necessarily 
constitute  a  great  bureaucracy.    Under  democracy 
the  government  is  derived  from  the  bottom,  and  is 
delegated  by  successive  commissions  to  a  hierarchy, 
not  of  masters,  but  of   servants.     Under  the  one 
system,  the  higher  the  official  the  wider  the  range 
of    his    authority;    under    the    other   system,   the 
higher  the  official  the  less  numerous  are  the  powers 
delegated  to  him.     Augustus  appointed  lieutenants 
who  executed  his  will  in  the  various  provinces  of 
the  Empire,  and  who  held  their  office  only  during 
his  pleasure.     Whenever  he  was  present,  the  juris- 
diction of  the  governor  was  superseded  by  that  of 
his  master.     Judicial  as  well  as  imperial   powers 
were  centred  in  him  and  devolved  upon  his  sub- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   DEMOCRACY.  45 

ordinates.  With  them  were  combined  those  of 
pontiff  and  of  censor ;  ''  by  the  former  he  acquired 
the  management  of  the  religion,  and  by  the  latter  a 
legal  inspection  over  the  manners  and  fortunes,  of 
the  Roman  people."  ^  The  President  and  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  on  the  contrary,  while  possess- 
ing very  great  powers,  possess  them  only  in  a  very 
limited  domain.  They  cannot  directly  enter  the 
family  or  regulate  the  industry  of  the  poorest  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States.  They  cannot  make  or 
mar  the  country  roads,  and  can  interfere  with  the 
great  highways  only  for  the  purpose  of  protecting 
or  promoting  commerce  between  the  States.  They 
are  powerless  to  interfere  with  either  religious 
beliefs  or  religious  rituals,  and  can  exercise  no 
authority  whatever  over  the  systems  of  popular 
education.  They  cannot  even  interfere  to  enforce 
law  or  quell  riots  and  insurrections,  except  in  cases 
in  which  the  local  authorities  are  incapable  of  ful- 
filling this  duty.  Though  the  greatest  concerns 
are  not  exempt  from  their  authority,  the  greatest 
number  of  concerns  are  so  exempt.  The  dangers 
threatened  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  prosperities 
promised  on  the  other,  as  the  result  of  a  Presidential 
election,  are  never  fulfilled,  for  the  public  peril  and 
the  public  prosperity  depend  in  the  main  on  na- 
tional forces  wholly  beyond  the  Presidential  control 
and  largely  beyond  that  of  Congress. 

Nor  can  it  be  doubted  by  the  student  of  current 

1  See  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  eh.  iii. 
p.  295  and  ff. ;  Smith's  Diet,  of  Biog.,  art.  "Augustus." 


46        CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

history  that  since  the  adoption  of  our  Constitution 
the  progress  of  our  time  has  been,  whether  for 
good  or  ill,  progress  toward  a  greater  diffusion  of 
political  power.  It  has  not  been  toward  the  "  brass 
collars,  whips,  and  handcuffs "  of  Carlyle.  The 
limitations  of  the  suffrage,  universal  at  the  adop- 
tion of  our  Constitution,^  have  been  swept  away ; 
property  and  educational  qualifications  are  abol- 
ished ;  with  few  and  diminishing  exceptions  "  one 
man,  one  vote,"  is  the  established  principle  of 
the  American  commonwealth.  Influence  still  de- 
pends on  wealth,  position,  and  education,  but  polit- 
ical power  does  not.  The  ballot  of  the  million- 
aire and  of  his  butler,  of  the  college  professor 
and  the  college  janitor,  of  the  scion  of  a  noble 
American  family  and  of  the  recently  landed  immi- 
grant, carry  the  same  weight  and  are  estimated  at 
the  same  value.  The  most  that  aristocracy,  that 
is,  government  by  the  best,  has  been  able  to  do 
in  American  history  thus  far  is  so  to  delay  this 
transference  of  power  from  Aristos  to  Demos  as 
to  prevent  a  too  sudden  revolution. 

Perhaps  in  nothing  has  this  change  from  gov- 

1  In  1700  "  very  little  of  what  would  now  be  called  democracy 
existed.  Everywhere  the  political  rig-hts  of  men  were  fenced 
about  with  restrictions  which  would  now  be  thought  unbearable. 
The  right  to  vote,  the  right  to  hold  office,  were  dependent,  not 
on  manhood  qualifications,  but  on  religious  opinions,  on  acres  of 
land,  on  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence."     McMaster,  History  of  the 

U.  S.,  vol.  iii.  p.  146.  McMaster  substantiates  this  general  state- 
ment with  elaborate  details.  Compare,  for  views  of  Hamilton 
and  Adams  in  favor  of  restricted  suffrage,  Hildreth's  Hist,  of  the 

U.  S.,  vol.  iv.  p.  297. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  4.7 

ernment  by  the  few  to  self-government  been  more 
strikingly  indicated  than  in  the  changed  character 
and  functions  of  our  American  representative  as- 
semblies, whether  municipal,  state,  or  national, 
except  in  the  still  more  changed  functions  of  the 
Electoral  College.  The  founders  of  the  American 
Constitution  declared  that  political  power  was  de- 
rived from  the  people,  but  did  not  expect  the 
people  to  exercise  it.  It  was  their  plan  that  the 
people  should  elect  the  wisest  and  the  best  of 
the  nation  to  represent  them,  and  that  the  repre- 
sentatives thus  elected  should  direct  the  policy  of 
the  nation.  They  thus  provided  an  Electoral  Col- 
lesce  which  should  itself  elect  a  President.  The 
Electoral  College  has  long  since  ceased  to  elect 
Presidents.  The  people  choose  the  Presidents,  and 
the  Electoral  College  simply  registers  the  popular 
decision.  A  similar  change  is  taking  place  in  the 
national  and  state  legislative  bodies.  Congress  has 
ceased  to  determine  national  policies,  —  has  ceased 
even,  to  any  considerable  extent,  to  discuss  them. 
Speeches  in  Congress  rarely  if  ever  change  a  vote. 
The  people  assemble  in  conventions  wholly  un- 
known to  the  Constitution  to  deliberate  on  public 
questions.  The  deliberation  is  carried  on  in  clubs, 
country  stores,  family  circles,  and  by  the  press  and 
pulpit.  The  results  of  these  discussions  are  pressed 
upon  Congress  by  editorials,  visiting  delegations, 
private  letters.  The  work  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives almost  wholly,  of  the  Senate  very  largely, 
is  done  in  committees.     The  committees  frame  in 


48        CHRISTfANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

law  what  the  people  have  clemanded.  Congressional 
action  rej^resents  popular  urgency,  their  inaction 
popular  indifference. 

The  course  of  Indian  legislation  may  serve  as  a 
concrete  illustration  of  this  process,  but  scores  of 
other  illustrations  would  serve  as  well.  In  1882 
the  friends  of  justice  to  the  Indian  were  summoned 
by  Mr.  A.  K.  Smiley  to  the  Lake  Mohonk  House,  a 
well-known  summer  hotel  in  Ulster  County,  to  con- 
sider Indian  rights  and  wrongs.  At  that  time  the 
Indians  throughout  the  country  were  placed  on 
reservations,  from  which  all  civilizing  influences, 
except  those  of  special  missionary  and  educational 
institutions,  were  excluded.  They  were  denied  all 
rights  of  citizenship,  including  the  right  to  buy 
and  sell  in  open  market,  the  right  of  free  transit 
throughout  the  United  States,  and  the  right  to  pro- 
tection of  person  and  property  by  the  courts.  The 
schools  which  existed  were  utterly  inadequate  to 
provide  for  the  education  of  the  Indian  children, 
and  were  maintained  under  a  complicated  no- 
system  of  partnership  between  the  government  and 
the  churches,  which  had  grown  up  without  fore- 
thought or  direction.  The  control  of  the  Indians 
was  placed  under  the  administration  of  a  bureau, 
the  personnel  of  which  changed  with  every  Presi- 
dential election,  so  that  continuity  of  purpose  and 
policy  were  impossible.  To  a  discussion  and  recti- 
fication of  these  evils  this  Lake  Mohonk  Confer- 
ence addressed  itself,  though  it  apparently  pos- 
sessed neither  political  power  nor  influence.     As 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  49 

the  result  of  its  discussions,  a  policy  was  shaped  and 
pressed  upon  Congress  and  upon  successive  Presi- 
dents. Public  sentiment  was  created  to  reinforce 
the  positions  laid  down  in  the  Lake  Mohonk  plat- 
forms. Congressional  and  departmental  coopera- 
tion was  secured  in  carrying  out  a  continuous  and 
measurably  consistent  policy.  The  reservation  sys- 
tem has  been  abandoned ;  the  reservations  are  being 
broken  up  ;  the  land  is  in  process  of  allotment  to  the 
Indians  in  severalty ;  a  public  school  system  under 
national  control  and  at  national  expense  has  been 
established ;  appropriations  for  educational  purposes 
have  been  increased  from  a  few  hundred  thousand 
to  more  than  a  million  annually  ;  appropriations 
for  rations  have  been  diminished ;  the  partnership 
between  the  nation  and  the  churches  has  been  dis- 
solved, and  all  sectarian  appropriations  are,  during 
the  next  few  years,  to  be  discontinued  ;  and  at  this 
writing  a  bill  has  been  introduced  into  Congress 
for  the  appointment  of  a  non-partisan  commission 
to  superintend  Indian  affairs,  take  the  Indian 
Bureau  out  of  politics,  and  secure  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  it  a  permanent,  non-partisan  service.  All 
this  has  been  accomplished,  not  by  deliberation  in 
Congress,  moving  thereto  of  its  own  volition,  but 
by  the  deliberations  and  determinations  of  men 
especially  interested  in  and  familiar  with  Indian 
affairs,  creating  a  public  opinion  in  favor  of  reform 
throughout  the  nation,  and  guiding  both  Congress 
and  the  department  in  a  steadily  advancing  move- 
ment toward  an  ultimate  solution  of  the  Indian 


50        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

problem.  The  work  of  Congress  has  been  really, 
not  to  decide  what  should  be  done,  but  to  do  what 
the  people  interested  have  demanded. 

The  contrast  between  the  American  republic 
and  the  Roman  empire,  and  the  changes  in  spirit 
and  method  wrought  in  the  American  republic  in 
the  one  short  century  of  its  existence,  indicate 
the  direction  in  which  the  United  States  is 
moving.  It  is  not  toward  less  but  toward  more 
democracy,  —  not  toward  a  greater  concentration, 
but  toward  a  greater  diffusion,  of  political  power. 
In  Rome,  as  to-day  in  Russia,  "  the  machine " 
was  law,  liberty  was  revolution.  In  America,  lib- 
erty is  law,  "  the  machine  "  is  revolution.  "  The 
machine  "  still  exists,  but  its  bureaucratic  powers 
are  really  un-American,  and  every  new  battle 
between  "  the  machine "  and  the  people  is  a  new 
defeat  for  the  former.  The  latest  and  perhaps 
most  striking  is  the  adoption  of  a  constitutional 
amendment  in  New  York  State  which  requires 
that  all  offices,  the  qualification  for  which  can  be 
determined  by  competitive  examination,  shall  be  so 
determined,  and  the  decision  of  the  highest  court 
in  the  State  that  this  provision  is  self-executory, 
and  that  to  fill  such  an  office  otherwise  is  uncon- 
stitutional and  illegal.!  The  primaries  are  still 
controlled  by  oligarchies,  but  how  to  make  their 

1  Since  this  chapter  was  written,  the  Massachusetts  Supreme 
Court  has  rendered  an  equally  significant  decision,  affirming-  the 
right  of  the  more  competent  to  the  office  in  question,  and  deny- 
ing the  right  of  the  legislature  to  deprive  him  of  it  in  favor  of  a 
veteran  who  has  not  proved  his  competency. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  ol 

action  the  expression  of  the  real  will  of  the  people 
is  already  a  subject  of  vigorous  current  discus- 
sion. The  attempt  to  cure  municipal  corruption 
by  transferring  the  power  from  the  people  to  the 
§tate  legislature,  and  governing  the  city  by  com- 
missions, has  been  tried  and  has  failed;  munici- 
pal reformers  are  beginning  to  demand  in  unmis- 
takable tones  the  extension  to  the  cities  of  those 
rights  and  responsibilities  of  local  self-govern- 
ment, which  are  now  had  by  the  village,  the  town, 
the  county,  and  even  the  school  district.  The 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  which  was  removed 
from  the  people  in  order  that  it  might  be  a  safe- 
guard, is  found  to  be  for  that  very  reason  danger- 
ous, and  the  demand  for  the  election  of  Senators, 
not  by  the  state  legislators  but  by  the  people  of 
the  several  States,  is  growing  yearly  more  urgent. 
The  Referendum,  according  to  which  important 
pieces  of  legislation  are  referred  to  the  people 
themselves  for  direct  vote,  and  the  Initiative, 
according  to  which  on  the  petition  of  a  reasonable 
number  of  citizens  any  question  must  be  sub- 
mitted by  the  legislature  to  the  people  for  direct 
vote,  have  worked  so  well  in  the  little  republic 
of  Switzerland,  that  American  reformers  are  be- 
ginning to  urge  the  adoption  of  these  methods 
here,  and  in  a  modified  form  and  in  a  tentative 
way,  after  the  fashion  of  reforms  in  Anglo-Saxon 
communities,  the  experiment  is  being  tried.^     In 

1  Referendum  and  Initiative  are  two  political  institutions  pecu- 
liar to  Switzerland.     Referendum  means  the  reference  to  all  vote- 


52        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

short,  every  decade  in  American  political  history 
marks  a  nearer  approach  to  at  least  so  much  of 

possessing-  citizens,  either  of  the  Confederation  or  of  a  Canton,  for 
acceptance  or  rejection  of  laws  and  resolutions  framed  by  their 
representatives.  The  Referendum  is  of  two  kinds,  compulsory 
and  optional.  It  is  compulsory  in  certain  Cantons,  where  all 
laws  adopted  by  the  Grand  Council,  or  other  representative  body 
of  a  Canton,  must  be  submitted  to  the  people,  and  optional  where 
limited  to  those  cases  in  which  a  certain  number  of  voters  demand 
it.  The  Federal  Constitution  of  1874  contains  an  article  extend- 
ing- the  exercise  of  the  popular  vote,  when  demanded  by  thirty 
thousand  citizens,  or  eight  Cantons,  to  all  Federal  laws,  and  all 
resolutions  of  a  g-eneral  nature  which  have  been  passed  by  the 
Chambers.  The  principle  of  the  Cantonal  and  the  Federal  Ref- 
erendum is  the  same.  By  the  Cantonal  Referendum,  whether 
compulsory  or  optional,  many  important  local  matters  are  sub- 
mitted to  the  collective  vote  of  the  citizens  of  the  particular 
Canton  interested.  "  The  Referendum  has  struck  root  and 
expanded  wherever  it  has  been  introduced,  and  no  serious 
politician  of  any  party  would  now  think  of  attempting-  its 
abolition."  "  It  has  g-iven  back  to  the  people  of  Switzerland 
rights  originally  possessed  by  them  in  most  of  the  old  Cantons, 
but  partly  or  wholly  lost  in  the  course  of  time."  "The  con- 
sciousness of  individual  influence,  as  well  as  the  national  feeling, 
is  declared  to  have  been  strengthened,  and  the  fact  of  a  large, 
and  on  several  occasions  increased,  participation  of  the  people  in 
the  vote  is  quoted  as  tending  to  prove  that  their  interest  in  polit- 
ical questions  is  growing  keener."  "  Extreme  measures,  whether 
radical  or  reactionary,  have  no  chance  whatever  of  being  accepted 
by  the  people,  who,  while  in  a  manner  fulfilling  the  functions  of 
a  second  chamber,  have  infinitely  more  weight  than  any  such 
body  usually  possesses,  even  if  it  be  thoroughly  representative 
and  chosen  by  universal  suffrage."  "  Initiative  is  the  exercise  of 
the  right  granted  to  any  single  voter,  or  body  of  voters,  to  initiate 
proposals  for  the  enactment  of  new  laws,  or  for  the  alteration  or 
abolition  of  existing  laws."  "  It  is  essentially  a  powerful  engine 
in  a  democratic  direction.  By  means  of  it  legislative  bodies, 
mostly  composed  of  persons  belonging  to  the  well-to-do  class,  can 
be  compelled  by  the  people  to  take  up  and  put  to  a  vote  matters 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  53 

Christ's  principle  as  is  embodied  in  the  statement 
that  no  man  is  to  be  called  Master ;  that  all  men 
are  brethren ;  and  that  the  few  great  men  are  to 
be  the  servants,  and  subject  to  the  will,  of  the 
many. 

Two  reflections  must  be  permitted  on  this  branch 
of  the  subject  before  we  pass  from  it.  The  first, 
that  in  so  far  as  a  government  is  democratic  it 
manifests  the  national  character,  since  it  is  the 
expression  of  the  national  will.  The  people  of 
Rome  might  have  been  either  much  better  or 
much  worse  than  the  government  imposed  upon 
them ;  but  the  people  of  America  are  neither 
much  better  nor  much  worse  than  the  govern- 
ment which  they  themselves  create  and  control. 
The  people  of  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  have  as  good  gov- 
ernments as  they  deserve,  except  indeed  as  those 
governments  are  imposed  upon  them  by  state 
legislatures  in  spite  of  their  protests.  It  is  in 
vain  for  the  American  to  revile  Congress ;  Con- 
gress is  a  mirror  which  reflects  the  national 
features.      On    the    one    hand,  its    refusal  to    re- 

which,  without  it,  would  in  all  probability  never  be  brought  to 
the  front.  But  it  is  still  an  institution  in  its  infancy,  and  requir- 
ing development."  —  The  Swiss  Confederation,  Sir  F,  O.  Adams 
and  C.  D.  Cunningham,  eh.  ^vi.  See,  also,  Prof.  Dieey's  art,  in 
The  Contemporary  Review  for  April,  1890;  and  Leeky's  Liberty 
and  Democracy,  vol.  i.  pp.  277-293.  The  Referendum  has 
already  extended  beyond  Switzerland ;  it  is  significant  that  it  is 
advocated  on  conservative  grounds,  and  within  defined  limits,  by 
a  writer  who  believes  as  little  as  does  Mr.  Lecky  in  the  virtue  and 
intelligence  of  the  people. 


54        CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

pudiate  national  indebtedness  or  to  pay  it  in 
depreciated  currency  ;  its  legislation  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  emancipated  negro,  and  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  Indian  from  the  barbarism  to 
which  previous  legislation  had  consigned  him ;  its 
attempt  to  exercise,  in  the  interest  of  the  public, 
some  control  over  the  interstate  railways ;  its  legis- 
lation against  the  Louisiana  Lottery ;  its  submis- 
sion of  the  Alabama  Claims  and  the  Northwest 
Boundary  question  to  arbitration ;  its  tardy  and 
imperfect  provision  for  international  copyright,  — 
are  all  reflections  of  the  better  thought  and  life 
of  the  American  people.  On  the  other  hand,  its 
bargaining  and  log-rolling  in  tariff  legislation ;  its 
cheap  and  noisy  war-talk ;  its  reluctant  surrender 
of  the  s23oils  system ;  its  often  absurd  appro- 
priations for  public  imj^rovements  designed  and 
pressed  through  for  personal  ends ;  its  passionate 
haste  when  deliberation  is  demanded,  and  its  some- 
times long  delays  when  prompt  action  is  indis- 
pensable to  public  warfare,  —  are  all  symptoms 
of  dangerous  elements  in  national  life.  For  the 
government,  whether  of  city,  state  or  nation,  is  a 
government  of  the  people,  and  is  therefore  a  man- 
ifestation of  their  character. 

The  other  reflection  is,  that  Christ's  principle, 
•'  Call  no  man  your  father  upon  the  earth,"  can  be 
defended  only  as  it  is  based  upon  his  other  princi- 
ple, "  One  is  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
There  is  not  space  here,  and  fortunately  there  is 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   DEMOCRACY.  55 

not  need,  to  trace  the  rise  and  progress  of  de- 
mocracy in  order  to  show  that  religious  liberty  has 
always  preceded  and  prepared  for  civil  liberty,  and 
that  only  as  men  have  recognized  God's  sovereignty 
have  they  ceased  to  admit  the  sovereignty  of  their 
fellows.  History  and  philosophy  combine  to  make 
it  clear  that  the  only  permanent  foundation  of  self- 
government  in  the  state  is  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment in  the  individual ;  and  that  the  only  basis  for 
self-government  in  the  individual  is  his  frank  recog- 
nition of  a  superior  authority  in  a  divine  law,  and 
therefore  a  divine  Lawgiver,  whose  authority  he 
does  not  question.  The  first  condition  of  self- 
government  is  the  ability  to  recognize  an  invisible 
law,  and  to  subject  one's  self  to  its  restraint.  This 
is  what  Christ  means  when  he  says,  "  If  the  Son 
therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed."  ^  The  law  of  liberty  is  the  supremacy  of 
the  individual  conscience  in  the  individual  life. 
"  Despotism,"  says  De  Tocqueville,  "  may  govern 
without  faith,  but  liberty  cannot.  Religion  is 
much  more  necessary  in  the  republic  which  they 
(the  atheistic  republicans)  set  forth  in  glowing 
colors  than  in  the  monarchy  which  they  attack ;  it 
is  more  needed  in  democratic  republics  than  in  any 
other.  How  is  it  possible  that  societies  should 
escape  destruction  if  the  moral  tie  be  not  strength- 
ened in  proportion  as  the  political  tie  is  relaxed  ? 
And  what  can  be  done  with  a  people  who  are  their 
own  masters,  if  they  be  not  submissive  to  the 
1  John  viii.  36. 


56        CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

Deity?  "1  Jesus  Christ  not  only  prophesied  de- 
mocracy, but  laid  the  foundations  and  furnished 
the  inspiration  essential  for  it. 

III.  Christianity,  which  brings  with  it  the  dif- 
fusion of  education  and  the  diffusion  of  political 
power,  brings  with  it  also  the  diffusion  of  wealth. 
But  this,  as  it  is  the  least  important,  so  it  is  the 
last  to  be  furnished.  Christ,  in  his  work  of  refor- 
mation, as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  see  later, 
begins  with  the  man  himself,  and  thence  proceeds 
to  the  improvement  of  his  condition  and  his  cir- 
cumstances. This  has  been  as  true  in  his  dealing 
with  the  race  as  in  his  dealing  with  the  individual. 
First  came  the  religious  emancipation,  next  the 
intellectual,  after  that  the  political,  last  of  all  the 
pecuniary  and  material. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  repaint  pictures  of  Roman 
life  and  remind  the  reader  of  a  state  of  society  in 
which  half  the  population  were  slaves,  and  in  which 
of  the  other  half  a  large  proportion  lived  so  upon 
the  verge  of  starvation  that  they  were  only  saved 
from  death  by  great  gifts  of  food  coerced  from  the 
rich  or  bestowed  by  the  government.^  Though  the 
concentration  of  wealth  in  America  is  still  great, 
and  probably  constitutes  the  greatest  peril  to  the 
republic,  still  there  has  never  been  a  time  in  the 
history   of   the    world   when   wealth,   with   its   ac- 

^  De  Tocqiieville,  Democracy  in  America,  ch.  xvii.  §  6. 

-  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  i.  278  ;  Uhlhorn,  Con- 
fiict  of  Christianity  with  Heathenism,  bk.  i.  ch.  ii.  p.  109.  Cf. 
Gibbon,  ch.  xvii.  vol.  ii.  p.  205,  and  notes,  Harpers'  edition,  and 
ch.  xxxi.  vol.  iii.  p.  o82  ;  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Boman 
Antiquities,  2d  ed.  p.  550,  art.  ''  Frumentariae  Leges." 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   DEMOCRACY.  57 

companying  comforts,  has  been  so  widely  diffused 
as  to-day.  Even  those  in  whose  hands  it  is  con- 
centrated hold  it  in  such  forms  and  put  to  such 
uses  that  its  benefits  are  diffused  throughout  the 
community.  The  main  benefit  enjoyed  by  the 
railroad  king:  who  owns  two  hundred  million  dol- 
lars  is  the  right  to  administer  a  great  property  for 
the  benefit  of  the  common  people.  They  travel  on 
the  same  railroad  with  him,  generally  at  about  the 
same  rate  of  speed,  often  in  the  same  train,  and 
commonly  with  the  same  degree  of  comfort,  though 
not  of  luxury.  If  he  charges  them  more  than  he 
ought  for  tlieir  carriage,  all  that  he  can  do  with 
his  profits  is  to  build  another  railroad  to  accom- 
modate another  community.  Whether  the  nation 
pays  railroad  kings  too  much  for  the  service  they 
render,  whether  railroads  should  be  under  the  ad- 
ministration of  railroad  kings  or  under  that  of  the 
people,  are  questions  not  here  considered.  What- 
ever the  answer  may  be,  it  remains  true  that  under 
the  present  system  railroad  wealth,  manufacturing 
wealth,  mining  wealth,  are  diffused  wealth.  The 
capitalist  no  longer  does  in  America  what  the 
Armenian  capitalist  still  has  to  do  in  Turkey, — 
invest  his  gains  in  clothes  which  he  cannot  wear, 
or  in  gold  or  jewels  which  he  is  compelled  to  hide 
from  the  government.  Society  has  been  revolu- 
tionized so  that  there  is  no  honest  way  by  which  a 
man  can  acquire  wealth  for  himself  without  con- 
ferring some  of  it  on  his  neighbors ;  and  so  little 
recognition  is  there  by  the  public  of  the  service 


58        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

which  he  renders  to  the  public  that  truth  gives 
keenness  to  the  satire  of  George  Bernard  Shaw's 
definition  :  "To  be  a  millionaire,  then,  is  to  have 
more  money  than  you  can  possibly  spend  on  your- 
self, and  to  appreciate  at  the  same  time  the  in- 
considerateness  of  those  persons  to  whom  such 
a  condition  appears  to  realize  perfect  contented- 
ness."  ^ 

Yet  despite  the  fact  that  wealth  has  never  been 
so  diffused,  and  the  comforts  wealth  brings  never 
so  broadcast,  as  in  America  to-day,  the  thoughtful 
student  of  our  national  life  must  certainly  recog- 
nize that  the  concentration  of  wealth  is  America's 
greatest  peril,  and  a  more  equable  distribution  of 
wealth  its  greatest  need.  That  cannot  be  counted 
either  a  Christian  or  a  democratic  state  of  soci- 
ety in  which  one  per  cent,  of  the  people  own  one 
half  of  all  the  wealth,  and  the  other  half  is  very 
unequally  distributed  among  the  other  ninety  per 
cent,  of  owners,^  —  in  which  there  are  a  few  million- 
aires at  one  pole  of   society  who   cannot  possibly 

1  "  Socialism  for  Millionaires,"  Contemporary  i?€i'ie?i',  February, 
1896. 

2  G.  K.  Holmes  in  Pol  Sci.  Quarterly,  vol.  viii.  No.  4,  Dec,  1893, 
gives  a  fuller  statement  of  the  distribution  of  wealth.  "  Ninety- 
one  per  cent,  of  the  12,690,152  families  of  the  country  own  no 
more  than  about  twenty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  wealth,  and  nine 
per  cent,  of  the  families  own  about  seventy-one  per  cent,  of  the 
wealth."     p.  592. 

"  We  are  now  prepared  to  characterize  the  concentration  of 
wealth  in  the  United  States,  by  stating-  that  twenty  per  cent,  of  it 
is  owned  by  three  hundredths  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  families ; 
fifty-one  per  cent,  by  nine  per  cent,  of  the  families  (not  including 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  59 

Spend  their  income,  and  many  men  and  women  at 
the  other  pole  of  society  who  have  little  or  no  in- 
come to  spend.  If  Adam  were  created  six  thou- 
sand years  ago,  had  lived  until  this  time,  and  had 
succeeded  in  laying  up  one  hundred  dollars  a  day 
for  every  working  day  of  the  six  thousand  years  of 
his  life,  he  would  not,  without  interest,  have  made  as 
much  money  in  six  thousand  years  as  the  elder  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt  is  said  to  have  made  in  a  lifetime. 
Jay  Gould  started  in  life  with  a  mousetrap  ;  at 
the  end  of  twenty-five  years  he  unrolled  certificates 
to  the  amount  of  a  hundred  million  dollars.  He 
made  four  million  dollars  on  the  average  each 
year,  that  is  to  say,  if  we  count  three  hundred  days 
to  the  year,  over  thirteen  thousand  dollars  a  day ; 
and  the  statisticians  tell  us  that  the  average  wages 
of  unskilled  labor  in  this  country  is  less  than  one 

millionaires)  .  .  .  and  twenty-nine  per  cent,  by  ninety-one  per 
cent,  of  the  families. 

"  About  twenty  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  is  owned  by  the  power 
families  that  own  farms  or  homes  without  incumbrance,  and  these 
are  twenty-eight  per  cent,  of  all  the  families.  Only  nine  per  cent, 
of  the  wealth  is  owned  by  tenant  families  and  the  poorer  class  of 
those  that  own  their  farms  or  homes  under  incumbrance,  and  these 
together  constitute  sixty-four  per  cent,  of  all  the  families.  As 
little  as  five  per  cent,  of  the  nation's  wealth  is  owned  by  fifty-two 
per  cent,  of  the  families,  that  is,  by  the  tenants  alone.  Finally, 
4,047  [millionaires]  families  possess  about  seven  tenths  as  much  as 
do  11,593,887  families."     p.  .593. 

"  If  a  recomputation  should  give  one  third  of  the  wealth  to  the 
11,593,887  families,  —  and  it  can  hardly  do  more  than  that,  — still 
sixty-seven  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  is  owned  by  nine  per  cent,  of 
the  families."     p.  593. 

See,  also,  T.  G.  Shearman, "  Owners  of  the  United  States,"  Forum, 
vol.  viii.,  p.  263,  November,  1889. 


60         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

dollar  a  day,  and  of  skilled  workingmen  not  over 
four  dollars  a  day  as  a  maximum.^  In  view  of 
such  inequalities  as  this,  one  need  not  be  a  radical 
to  believe  with  James  Russell  Lowell  in  "  giving 
to  the  hands,  not  so  large  a  share  as  to  the  brain, 
but  a  larger  share  than  hitherto  in  the  wealth  they 
must  combine  to  produce." 

For  the  evils  of  such  concentration  of  wealth  are 
many  and  great.  It  tends  to  degradation  at  one 
pole  of  society  by  producing  luxury,  enervation, 
effeminacy,  and  a  class  of  idle  rich.  It  tends  to 
degradation  at  the  other  pole  of  society  by  deaden- 
ing men's  hopes,  destroying  their  ambition,  concen- 
trating their  whole  life's  thought  on  the  mere 
problem  of  living,  condemning  them  to  a  life  of 
drudgery,  if  not  also  to  a  spirit  of  servitude.  It 
imperils  liberty.  In  America  our  most  serious  and 
immediate  danger  is  not  that  of  reverting  to  mon- 
archy or  aristocracy,  or  going  on  to  an  unregulated 
democracy:  it  is  the  danger  of  becoming  a  pluto- 
cracy ;  a  government  nominally  controlled  by  the 
people,  but  really  administered  by  purchased  agents 
of  a  wealthy  oligarchy.  The  peril  from  public 
corruption  is  our  greatest  peril.  '^  Give  a  man 
power  over  my  subsistence,"  said  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, "  and  he  has  power  over  the  whole  of  my  moral 

1  For  farm  hands  it  averages  about  75  cents  a  day  (Dept.  of 
Agriculture  Rejjort,  1890) ;  for  day  laborers  in  the  towns,  a  little 
more,  perhaps  SI  a  day;  for  factory  laborers  .$1.50  {Mass.  Labor 
Report,  1889,  Miss.  Labor  Report,  1890)  ;  for  skilled  workmen 
in  the  building-  trades,  from  $2  to  $4  a  day  ( U.  S.  Senate  Report, 
1394,  Finance  Com.,  1893). 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  61 

being."  ^  At  the  present  time,  one  small  body  of 
men  control  the  anthracite  coal  output,  a  second 
small  body  the  oil,  a  third  small  body  the  meat,  a 
fourth  small  body  the  transportation,  and  there  are 
not  wanting  indications  that  a  fifth  small  body  will 
soon  exercise  a  practical  control  over  our  currency, 
or  medium  of  exchange.  This  is  a  condition  of 
things  perilously  near  a  control  over  a  people's 
subsistence,  against  which  Alexander  Hamilton 
warned  his  countrymen.  Such  concentration  of 
wealth  itself  destroys  the  value  of  wealth ;  for  the 
products  of  industry  are  useful  only  as  there  are 
men  and  women  able  not  only  to  use  them,  but  to 
procure  them  by  exchanging  therefor  the  products 
of  their  own  industry.  Whenever  the  wealth  of 
the  community  is  concentrated  in  a  few  hands,  the 
products  of  industry  no  longer  have  a  market.  We 
hear  much  of  over-production  as  the  cause  of  hard 
times.  Over-production  !  Too  many  shoes,  —  there- 
fore men  go  barefoot.  Too  much  coal,  —  therefore 
men  freeze.  Too  many  houses,  —  therefore  men  are 
unsheltered.  What  a  non  sequitur  1  It  is  not  over- 
production, it  is  under-demand,  which  produces  hard 
times.  In  an  Irish  village,  with  one  wealthy  family 
possessing  a  million  dollars  and  a  peasant  popula- 
tion with  no  money  at  all,  there  is  but  one  family 
that  wants  shoes ;  all  the  rest  are  shoeless,  and  the 
shoemaker  has  nothing  to  do.  In  a  New  England 
viUage,  in  which  every  family  has  adequate  means 
of  livelihood,  the   shoemaker  is  busy  all  the  day 

1  Quoted  ill  Wealth  or  Commonwealth,  p.  529. 


62         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

long.  When  every  woman  in  America  can  pur- 
chase as  many  silk  dresses  as  she  wants,  silk-mills 
will  not  stand  idle.  Concentration  of  wealth  para- 
lyzes industry,  diffusion  of  wealth  stimulates  in- 
dustry ;  the  greater  the  diffusion  the  more  prosper- 
ous the  nation.  The  economic  problem  of  our  age 
is  how  to  secure  the  benefits  of  organization  in  pro- 
ducing wealth  without  incurring  the  evils  of  con- 
centration in  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  it. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  consider  by  what  pro- 
cess a  wider  diffusion  of  wealth  can  be  promoted. 
It  is  enough  to  say,  with  Professor  Sid g wick,  that  the 
problem  of  political  economy  is  not  any  longer  the 
acquisition,  but  is  henceforth  the  equable  distri- 
bution, of  wealth.  This  is  certainly  not  to  be  pro- 
moted by  a  blind  distribution  of  the  acquisitions  of 
one  class  among  the  insatiable  of  another ;  nor  by 
laws  limiting  the  products  of  industry,  or  denying 
to  the  industrious  the  rewards  of  their  toil.  But 
there  are  other  methods  open  to  the  consideration 
of  the  American  student.  He  will  remember  that 
unjust  systems  of  taxation  have  favored  the  few  at 
the  expense  of  the  many,  and  he  will  question 
whether  we  have  yet  found  a  system  of  taxation 
absolutely  just  and  equal.  He  will  remember  that 
in  America,  by  our  abolition  of  the  right  of  primo- 
geniture, we  have  limited  the  power  of  the  "  dead 
hand  ; "  and  he  will  question  whether  we  may  not 
still  further  limit  the  right  of  men  whose  wealth 
has  been  largely  dependent  uj^on  the  community, 
to  control  absolutely  the  disposition  of  that  wealth 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    DEMOCRACY.  63 

in  the  community  after  they  are  dead.  He  will 
see  that  legislation  has  operated  to  discourage 
gambling  and  encourage  productive  industry,  and 
he  will  ask  whether  further  legislation  in  the  same 
direction  may  not  be  both  wise  and  desirable.^  He 
will  remember  that  war  has  always  cast  its  heavi- 
est burdens  on  the  poor,  and  he  will  question 
whether  some  more  economical  method  of  solving 
international  difficulties  cannot  be  discovered  than 
the  expensive  and  inefficient  method  of  brute  force. 
He  will  remember  that,  partly  due  to  legislative 
influences,  partly  to  influences  purely  social  and 
industrial,  the  interest  on  capital  has  diminished 
and  the  vvasres  of  labor  have  increased,  and  he 
will  ask  himself  the  question  whether  this  method 
of  equalization  of  profits  has  reached  its  consum- 
mation.    In  short,  he  will  believe  that,  as  the  effect 

1  "  The  people  of  the  country  were  startled  —  I  certainly  was  — 
when  the  statement  was  made  in  an  article  in  one  of  the  maga- 
zines, a  few  weeks  since,  that  one  half  the  property  and  wealth  of 
this  covmtry  were  owned  hy  36,000  persons.  This  statement, 
while  not  authentic,  I  imagine  is  not  far  from  correct.  But  I  give 
it  as  my  deliberate  judg'ment  here  and  now  that  this  condition  of 
things  could  have  never  come  about  had  it  not  been  for  the 
methods  and  devices  that  have  grown  up  on  the  different  ex- 
changes of  the  country  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  The  million- 
aires, the  ten-millionaires,  the  forty-millionaires,  or  the  one  hun- 
dred-millionaires, almost  without  exception,  have  neither  created 
nor  earned  their  wealth.  The  '  royal  road  to  wealth  '  has  been 
through  the  illegitimate  speculation,  stock  and  grain  gambling, 
market- wrecking,  railroad-wrecking,  trusts,  and  the  whole  family 
of  iniquities  that  have  developed  under  the  nefarious  methods  of 
the  exchanges  of  this  country."  Speech  by  Hon.  W.  D.  Washburn, 
of  Minnesota,  in  U.  S.  Senate,  Jidy  11,  1895. 


64         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  Christianity  lias  been  the  diffusion  of  religious 
and  intellectual  life  and  of  political  power,  so  it 
has  been,  and  is  yet  to  be,  the  diffusion  of  wealth 
and  its  attendant  comforts  ;  and  he  will  not  be 
afraid  to  ask  himself  what  can  be  done  to  promote 
still  further  that  progress  toward  popular  pros- 
perity w^iich  Christ  both  promised  and  prophesied 
in  his  sermon  at  Nazareth. 

For  that  this  democratizing  process  is  a  distinc- 
tive characteristic  of  modern  life  can  hardly  be 
doubted.  Art  has  never  surpassed  that  of  Phidias, 
but  modern  inventions  put  beauty  into  the  homes 
of  the  humblest  workingman.  AVe  still  go  back 
to  Homer  and  to  Aeschylus  for  literature,  but  the 
printing-press  and  the  common  school  put  the  best 
literature  within  the  reach  of  the  poorer  people. 
Modern  education  is  universal.  Temples  do  not 
outshine  those  of  Jerusalem,  Ephesus,  Rome,  but 
there  is  a  church  in  every  village.  There  are  no 
saints  who  in  spiritual  vision  and  consecrated  life 
transcend  the  Apostle  Paul,  but  into  the  slums  of 
every  modern  city,  apostles  with  the  Pauline  spirit 
are  carrying  the  message  of  God's  love  for  man 
and  of  man's  love  for  his  fellow-men.  The  process 
begun  in  Galilee,  however,  is  not  yet  completed, 
and  will  not  be  until  political  economy  learns  and 
teaches  the  doctrine  of  distribution  as  well  as  of 
accumulation;  until  fools  cease  to  hoard  and  wise 
men  learn  to  scatter ;  until  every  "  boss "  is  dis- 
missed, and  every  ring  broken  ;  until  our  systems  of 
public  education   recognize  the  truth  that  to  think 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    DEMOCRACY.  ^^ 

is  more  than  to  know,  and  to  be  is  more  than  to 
think ;  until,  in  the  words  of  the  ancient  prophet, 
"  every  valley    is    filled,    and    every   mountain  is 


brought  low." 


CHAPTER  III 

CHRISTIANITY    AND   COMMUNISM. 

Count  Tolstoi,  in  "  My  Religion,"  thus  de- 
scribes the  condition  of  modern  society  :  — 

*'  People  come  to  a  farm.  They  find  there  all  that  is 
necessary  to  sustain  life, —  a  house  well  furnished,  barns 
filled  with  grain,  cellars  and  store-rooms  well  stocked  with 
provisions,  implements  of  husbandry,  horses  and  cattle, — 
in  a  word,  all  that  is  needed  for  a  life  of  comfort  and 
ease.  Each  wishes  to  profit  by  this  abundance,  but  each 
for  himself,  without  tliinking  of  others,  or  of  those  who 
may  come  after  him.  Each  wants  the  whole  for  him- 
self, and  begins  to  seize  upon  all  that  he  can  possibly 
grasp.  Then  begins  a  veritable  pillage :  they  fight  for 
the  possession  of  the  spoils  ;  oxen  and  sheep  are  slaugh- 
tered ;  wagons  and  other  implements  are  broken  up  into 
firewood  ;  they  fight  for  the  milk  and  grain  ;  they  grasp 
more  than  they  can  consume.  No  one  is  able  to  sit  down 
to  the  tranquil  enjoyment  of  what  he  has,  lest  another 
take  aAvay  the  spoils  already  secured,  to  surrender  them 
in  turn  to  some  one  stronger.  All  these  people  leave 
the  farm  bruised  and  famished.  Thereupon  the  Master 
puts  everything  to  rights,  and  arranges  matters  so  that 
every  one  may  live  there  in  peace.  The  farm  is  again  a 
treasury  of  abundance.  Then  comes  another  group  of 
seekers,  and  the  same  struggle  and  tunmlt  is  repeated, 
till  these  in  their  turn  go  away  bruised  and  angry,  curs- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  67 

ing  the  Master  for  providing  so  little  and  so  ill.  The 
good  Master  is  not  discouraged  ;  he  again  provides  for 
all  that  is  needed  to  sustain  life,  and  the  same  incidents 
are  repeated  over  and  over  again."  ^ 

This  is  not  an  inapt  description  of  the  results 
of  "  free  competition."  It  is  true  that  the  worst 
forms  of  this  competition  have  been  in  a  measure 
overcome.  In  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, William  the  Conqueror  formed  an  expedi- 
tion, sailed  across  the  Channel,  conquered  the  king 
whom  the  English  people  desired  should  reign  over 
them,  and  took  his  crown  and  his  land  from  him. 
Such  a  war  of  conquest  could  hardly  be  endured  in 
our  time.  International  law,  certainly,  would  not 
recognize  it  as  legitimate.  It  is  true  that,  at  the 
close  of  the  Franco-German  War,  Germany  took 
Alsace  and  Lorraine  and  demanded  a  money  indem- 
nity ;  but  the  war  was  not  declared  for  the  sake  of 
acquiring  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  nor  for  the  sake 
of  the  money  indemnity.  Taking  property  from 
another  by  open  violence  is  no  longer  considered 
permissible.  The  robber  barons  no  longer  sit  upon 
the  Rhine  and  plunder  the  passer-by.  Taking 
money  by  stealth  from  other  men's  pockets  is  not 
permissible.  It  is  said  that  the  Spartans  did  not 
condemn  thievery.  We  have  grown  in  so  far  better 
than  the  Spartans  that  we  condemn  thievery,  even 
if  we  sometimes  practice  it.  Flagrant  fraud  is  no 
longer  permissible.  Gambling  is  no  longer  avowed 
and  defended  as  honorable,  and  in  its  more  repu- 
^  Tolstoi's  My  Religion,  ch.  vii.,  Crowell's  edition,  p.  129. 


68        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

table  forms  wears  a  disguise  and  bears  an  alias. 
The  public  sentiment  of  America  has  within  the 
last  ten  years  broken  up  the  Louisiana  Lottery  and 
driven  it  out  of  the  land.  We  have  made  some 
progress  toward  a  better  understanding  and  use  of 
life.  But  we  cannot  say  that  the  competition  on 
Tolstoi's  farm,  in  which  the  implements  are  split  up 
into  kindling-wood,  is  ended. 

How  are  we  to  meet  the  evils  that  grow  out  of 
misdirected  and  excessive  acquisitiveness?  Chris- 
tianity and  Communism  give  different  answers  to 
this  question.  Each  recognizes  the  evils,  but  they 
recommend  different  remedies.  The  difference  is 
that  between  Christianity  and  asceticism,  between 
the  spirit  which  seeks  to  overcome  evil  with  good 
and  that  which  seeks  to  overcome  it  by  prohibition 
and  extirpation. 

Christianity  recognizes  neither  absolute  good  nor 
absolute  evil  in  man.  The  highest  faculties  have 
their  perils,  the  lowest  their  useful  purpose.  Rev- 
erence, if  sensuous,  becomes  the  mother  of  supersti- 
tion ;  love,  if  irrational,  begets  sentimentalism ; 
conscience  inflamed  by  self-will  is  cruder  than 
hate.  On  the  other  hand,  appetite  is  necessary  to 
the  maintenance  of  bodily  vigor ;  combativeness 
and  destructiveness  are  at  once  the  progenitors  and 
the  servants  of  courage,  —  there  is  no  heroism  with- 
out them ;  self-esteem  is  the  backbone  of  the  soul, 
• —  without  it  man  is  a  worm  and  no  man  ;  and  ac- 
quisitiveness, if  a  root  of  every  manner  of  evil,  is 
also  a  root  of  every  form  of  productive  industry. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  69 

Christianity,  therefore,  proposes  not  to  destroy,  but 
to  counterbalance ;  not  to  extirpate,  but  to  inspire, 
quicken,  control.  It  does  not  destroy  appetite,  but 
inspires  conscience  and  self-esteem  to  control  it; 
nor  eradicate  combativeness  and  destructiveness,  but 
directs  them  to  noble  ends  ;  nor  extirpate  acquisi- 
tiveness, but  bids  it  serve  benevolence.  It  is  true 
that  Christ  says  it  is  better  to  enter  life  maimed 
than,  having  two  hands  or  two  feet,  to  enter  into  hell 
lire  ;  that  is,  asceticism  is  better  than  death.  But 
he  who  came  eating  and  drinking  did  not  set  to  his 
followers  an  example  of  asceticism.  On  the  con- 
trary he  declared  of  himself  that  he  came  that  men 
might  have  life,  and  might  have  it  more  abundantly. 
To  leave  the  world,  or  any  part  of  the  world,  is  to 
follow  John  the  Baptist ;  to  follow  Christ  is  to 
enter  the  world  and  every  phase  of  the  world. 

Thus  Christianity  and  asceticism  start  from  dif- 
ferent premises  and  proceed  by  different  methods. 
Asceticism  assumes  that  there  are  inherently  evil 
faculties  in  man  to  be  destoyed ;  Christianity  as- 
sumes that  man  is  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and 
that  every  faculty,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest, 
is  to  find  its  proper  place  and  render  its  divine 
service.  Asceticism  seeks  to  conquer  the  evil  that 
is  in  the  world  by  removing  the  temptation  ;  Chris- 
tianity seeks  to  conquer  it  by  making  the  individual 
strong  to  meet  and  master  temptation.  Asceticism 
endeavors  to  preserve  innocence  ;  Christianity,  to 
promote  virtue.  Asceticism  sees  peril  in  life,  and 
seeks  to  escape  the  peril  by  lessening  life ;  Chris- 


70        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

tianity  sees  the  peril  quite  as  clearly,  but  endea- 
vors to  deliver  from  it  by  a  more  abundant  life. 
Asceticism  says,  Abolish  alcohol,  then  there  will 
be  no  drunkenness  ;  Christianity  says.  Make  the 
man  strong  to  rule  himself,  teach  him  what  alcohol 
is  for  and  how  to  use  it.  How  shall  we  meet  the 
evils  of  an  illicit  imagination  ?  It  is  appealed  to  by 
licentious  pictures,  by  debasing  novels,  by  a  corrupt 
drama.  Puritanism  says.  Take  down  all  pictures 
from  the  walls ;  destroy  all  statues  ;  burn  up  all 
novels  ;  shut  the  door  of  all  theatres,  and  drive 
the  actors  to  more  useful  labor.  Christianity  says. 
Hang  pictures  on  the  walls,  keep  the  library  doors 
open  ;  teach  men  how  to  make  art  and  fiction  pure, 
and  how  with  the  imagination  to  minister  to  the 
higher  life  of  man  ;  leave  open  the  door  of  the 
theatre,  and  learn  how  to  discriminate  between 
the  play  which  makes  for  life  and  the  play  which 
impairs  it. 

How  shall  we  deal  with  the  evils  of  acquisitive- 
ness ?  Communism  says.  The  existence  of  private 
property  sets  on  fire  acquisitiveness  ;  because  men 
can  get  and  keep,  they  are  acquisitive ;  therefore 
abolish  private  property.  In  its  extreme  form 
communism  is  expressed  in  the  often-quoted  but 
misinterpreted  aphorism  of  Proudhon,  "  Property 
is  robbery."  He  does  not  mean  that  every  man 
who  owns  property  is  a  robber.  But,  as  he  ex- 
plains, slavery  is  assassination,  —  that  is,  the  right 
of  one  man  to  own  another  man  destroys  all  that 
is  valuable  and  sacred  in  the  other  man's  life.    So, 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  71 

he  says,  the  right  of  one  man  to  own  property  sets 
on  fire  within  him  a  passion  to  get  more  property 
from  his  neighbor,  and  is  the  parent  of  robbery.^ 
Abolish  private  property ;  let  all  property  be 
owned  in  common ;  let  all  industry  produce  a 
common  wealth :  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the 
evils  of  acquisitiveness  come  to  an  end.  That  is 
communism.  In  the  family  the  brother  does  not 
own  more  than  the  sister,  nor  the  father  more 
than  the  child,  nor  the  husband  more  than  the 
wife.  There  is  a  common  property  which  is  ad- 
ministered in  a  common  interest.  According  to 
the  communist,  the  family  is  the  ideal  of  all  social 
organism,  and  we  shall  not  reach  the  ideal  until 
we  come  to  be  one  household  and  own  all  property 
in  common. 

Nor  can  we  set  this  notion  of  common  property 
aside  as  unworthy  of  serious  consideration.  We 
cannot  forget  that  this  was  the  dream  of  Plato,  — 
and  Plato  was  a  wise  man.  From  his  time  to  the 
days  of  "  Looking  Backward  "  it  has  been  an  ideal 
of  noble  men.  They  have  conceived  it,  pondered 
it,  prayed  for  it,  expected  it.  He  who  accepts  the 
fundamental  principle  that  innocence,  not  virtue, 
the  absence  of  evil,  not  victory  over  it,  is  the  end 
of  life ;  that  the  extirpation  of  dangerous  elements, 
not  the  retention  and  subordination  of  them  to  the 
reason  and  conscience,  is  the  aim  of  moral  develop- 
ment, —  will  if  logical  be  a  communist.  If  he  be- 
lieves that  the  way  to  remedy  the  evils  of  life  is  to 

^  Proudhon,  Works^  vol.  i.  p.  11  and  ff. 


72        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

lessen  life,  his  creed  will  conduct  him  straight  to 
communism.  If  he  thinks  the  way  to  promote 
temperance  is  to  abolish  alcohol  ;  the  way  to  pre- 
vent licentiousness  is  to  prohibit  paintings,  statu- 
ary, fiction,  and  the  drama ;  the  way  to  abolish  war 
is  to  extirpate  from  man  combativeness  and  de- 
structiveness,  —  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  escape  tlje 
conclusion  that  the  way  to  abolish  the  evils  of 
acquisitiveness  is  to  abolish  private  property.  But 
virtue,  not  innocence,  was  Christ's  aim,  enlargement, 
not  diminution,  of  life  his  principle,  victory  over 
temptation,  not  escape  from  it,  his  method. 

To  make  clear  the  contrast  between  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity  and  communism,  it  is  necessary 
to  define  the  latter  with  a  little  more  exactitude, 
and  this  is  the  more  important  because  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  misapprehension  respecting  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word. 

The  doctrine  that  the  community  ought  to  own 
some  property  in  common  is  not  communism.  The 
best  of  our  modern  cities  own  hundreds  of  acres 
in  parks  and  are  continually  adding  to  their  hold- 
ings. It  is  not  communism  for  the  community 
to  administer  certain  forms  of  industry,  and  to 
own  the  property  necessary  for  that  purj^ose.  In 
the  time  of  Thomas  Jefferson  it  was  questioned 
whether  the  carriage  of  letters  ought  not  to  be 
left  to  private  enterprise,  as  now  the  express  busi- 
ness and  the  telegraph,  that  is,  the  carriage  of 
parcels  and  intercommunication  by  electricity,  are 
left  to  private  enterprise ;  but  the  people  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  73 

United  States  thought  differently  as  to  the  post- 
office,  and  to-day  they  carry  on  the  post-office 
themselves.  It  is  not  communistic  for  the  nation 
to  own  its  post-office  property,  and  to  administer 
the  post-office.  In  Europe  the  post-office  is  also 
the  express  office,  and  the  complex  duties  of  the 
post-office  are  enlarging.  Glasgow  owns  and  oper- 
ates its  city  railroads  ;  Australia,  all  its  railroads. 
Such  ownership  is  not  communism,  and  is  not  com- 
munistic. The  question  whether  this  country  ought 
to  own  and  operate  its  railroads,  and  its  telegraph 
system,  and  its  express  business,  are  questions 
in  political  economy  which  I  do  not  propose  here 
to  discuss.  In  my  judgment  it  is  indispensable 
to  national  welfare  that  the  nation  should  exer- 
cise a  control  over  the  great  interstate  lines  of 
railroads,  while  the  peril  to  a  Federal  system  in- 
volved in  governmental  ownership  appears  to  me 
a  serious  if  not  an  insuperable  obstacle.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  sooner  our  cities  own  the  city  lines 
of  railroad  the  better  both  for  the  convenience 
of  the  people  ^.nd  the  purity  of  our  municipal  gov- 
ernments. But,  whatever  opinions  we  may  enter- 
tain on  these  and  kindred  questions,  it  is,  or  ought 
to  be,  quite  clear  that  such  ownership  of  railroads, 
whether  by  city,  state,  or  nation,  is  not  commu- 
nism and  is  not  communistic,  because  it  does  not 
involve  a  denial  of  the  rights  of  private  property, 
and  does  not  aj^proximate  such  a  denial.  It  is  not 
communistic  for  a  community  to  be  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  owning  and  enjoying  property  in  com- 


74         CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

mon.  A  club  forms  in  the  Adirondacks.  Its  mem- 
bers buy  a  thousand  acres,  and  go  there  every 
summer  to  enjoy  the  acres  in  common.  It  is  a 
common  property  held  for  a  common  purpose  and 
enjoyed  in  common.  That  is  not  communism, 
because  it  recognizes  the  right  of  private  property, 
and  is  a  combination  for  a  particular  purpose. 
Each  of  our  great  railroad  systems  is  owned  jointly 
by  several  thousand  stockholders.  Such  a  joint- 
ownership  is  not  communistic.  The  church  at 
Jerusalem  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  having 
adopted  a  species  of  communism  because  the  dis- 
cijDles  held  property  in  common.  But  it  was  not 
communism,  and  it  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  com- 
munistic. For  the  church  did  not  deny  —  on  the 
contrary  it  affirmed  —  the  rights  of  private  property. 
The  members  of  the  church  might  turn  their  prop- 
erty into  the  common  stock  or  not,  as  they  pleased, 
and  might  turn  in  as  much  or  as  little  as  they 
pleased.  The  contribution  to  a  common  treasury 
was  a  wholly  voluntary  contribution.  When  Ana- 
nias and  Sapphira  sold  a  possession  and  pretended 
to  offer  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  to  the  church, 
while  they  really  gave  only  a  part,  Peter,  in  his 
condemnation  of  them,  affirmed  the  right  of  pri- 
vate property,  and  the  recognition  of  that  right  by 
the  infant  church.  "  Whiles  it  remained,"  said 
he,  "  was  it  not  thine  own  ?  And  after  it  was  sold, 
was  it  not  in  thine  own  power?  "  ^  A  brotherhood 
which  has  a  common  treasury,  and  to  which  any 
1  Acts  V.  4. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  75 

member  may  contribute  all  or  part  of  his  property 
as  he  pleases,  is  not,  properly  speaking,  a  commu- 
nistic brotherhood.  Such  holding  of  property  in 
common  for  special  purposes  is  not  communism 
nor  communistic,  for  it  does  not  tend  to  the  doc- 
trine that  there  is  no  true  right  of  private  prop- 
erty. The  doctrine  that  some  things  held  as  prop- 
erty are  not  proper  subjects  for  property  is  not 
itself  communism.  In  1824  the  State  of  New  York 
gave  a  license  by  which  it  bestowed  upon  Living- 
ston and  Fulton  an  exclusive  right  to  use  the  navi- 
gable waters  about  New  York  city.  It  treated 
navigable  waters  as  proper  subjects  for  private 
property.  Daniel  Webster  maintained  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  that  the  navi- 
gable rivers  of  this  nation  are  not  private  property, 
and  that  no  exclusive  right  to  use  them  can  ever 
be  given,  and  the  Supreme  Court  sustained  his 
position.!  That  is  not  communism.  When  Henry 
George,  borrowing  his  affirmation  from  the  Mosaic 
legislation,  says  that  land  is  not  a  proper  subject 
of  private  ownership,  whether  he  is  right  or  wrong, 
his  doctrine  is  not  communism.  It  is  not  commu- 
nism to  affirm  that  certain  things  —  air,  water, 
navigable  rivers,  the  soil  and  its  contents  —  are 
not  proper  subjects  for  private  property.  For 
communism  is  the  doctrine  that  all  property  should 
be  held  in  common,  —  not  that  some  things  should 
be  held  in  common,  —  and  therefore  is  not,  strictly 
speaking,  property  at  all.     A   state  of  society  in 

1   Webster's  Great  Speeches,  Gibbons  v.  Ogden,  1824,  p.  111. 


76         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

which  the  property  is  vested  in  one  set  of  men  who 
administer  it,  or  are  supposed  to  administer  it,  with 
regard  to  the  interests  of  another  set  of  men,  is  not 
communism.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  owned, 
we  are  told,  in  the  seventh  century  one  third  of 
the  territory  in  France,  in  the  ninth  century  one 
half  the  territory  in  Italy,  and  in  the  eleventh  one 
half  the  territory  in  Germany  and  in  England, 
and  we  are  told  —  at  least  by  the  advocates  of 
a  communistic  system — that  it  administered  the 
trust  better  than  it  is  administered  to-day,  —  that 
wages  were  better,  that  the  church  was  a  better 
landlord,  and  that  the  houses  were  kept  in  better 
condition.^  Perhaps !  But  the  doctrine  that  the 
religious  people  ought  to  own  all  the  property, 
and  administer  it  for  the  irreligious  people,  is  not 
communism.  And  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any 
immediate  danger  of  its  present  introduction  into 
American  life. 

Communism  is,  j)rimarily,  the  doctrine  that  there 
is  no  right  of  personal  j^roperty,  —  that  all  prop- 
erty should  be  held  in  common.  One  form  of 
socialism  is  so  far  communistic  that  it  maintains 
that  a  large  section  of  property  should  be  held  in 
common.  It  maintains  that  all  that  property 
which  is  used  in  productive  labor  should  be  held 
in  common.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  "  Looking 
Backward."  A  man  may  own  the  cane  with  which 
he  walks,  but  not  the  spade  with  which  he  digs. 
He  may  own  a  bicycle  if  he  rides  it  for  pleasure, 

1  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  p.  78. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNISM.  77 

but  not  if  he  rides  it  to  business.  He  may  own 
his  house,  but  not  his  factory.  He  may  own  that 
which  is  used  for  enjoyment,  but  not  that  which 
is  used  for  productive  service.  That  is  a  phase 
of  communism.  The  essence  of  communism  is 
always,  however,  this  :  that  private  property  is  a 
mistake ;  that  the  family  is  the  ideal ;  that  all 
property  should  be  owned  in  common,  and  all 
industry  directed  by  a  common  head. 

The  Bible  teaches  no  such  doctrine,  and  con- 
tains nothino^  which  favors  such  doctrine.  It  con- 
demns  in  scathing  terms  the  oppression  of  the 
poor  by  the  rich.  It  condemns  using  money  as  the 
standard  and  measurement  of  life.  It  pronounces 
making  acquisition  the  end  of  life  as  a  supreme 
folly.  It  demands  justice  from  the  rich  toward  the 
poor,  and  urges  charity  from  the  rich  toward  the 
poor.  But  nowhere  does  it  condemn  the  acquisi- 
tion of  private  property  ;  nowhere  does  it  intimate 
an  opinion  in  favor  of  the  owning  of  property  in 
common.  Laveleye  gives  quotations  from  the 
early  Fathers  in  which,  quite  in  the  spirit  of  mod- 
ern communism,  they  condemn  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  as  a  sin  and  its  possession  as  a  disgrace :  — 

"The  rich  man  is  a  thief"  (St.  Basil).  "The  rich 
are  robbers ;  a  kind  of  equality  must  be  effected  by 
making  gifts  out  of  their  abundance.  Better  all  things 
were  in  common "  (St.  Chrysostom).  "  Opulence  is 
always  the  product  of  a  theft,  committed,  if  not  by  the 
actual  possessor,  by  his  ancestors  "  (St.  Jerome). 
"  Nature  created  community  ;  private  property  is  the 


78        CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

offspring  of  usurpation  "  (St.  Ambrose).  "  In  strict 
justice,  everything  should  belong  to  all.  Iniquity  alone 
has  created  private  property  "  (St.  Clement).^ 

These  utterances  are  not  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Bible.  On  the  contrary,  the  Old  Testament  de- 
clares that  it  is  God  who  bestows  wealth,  as  a 
reward  for  virtue,  so  that  it  becomes,  though  by 
no  means  an  infallible  sign,  yet  a  sign  of  holiness 
and  of  divine  favor .2  The  Biblical  condemnations 
of  the  vice  of  acquisitiveness  imply  by  their  very 
phraseology  that  there  is  a  legitimate  acquisition 
and  a  noble  use  of  wealth.  "  Woe  unto  him  that 
buildetb  his  house  by  unrighteousness  and  his 
chambers  by  wrong,  that  useth  his  neighbors' 
service  without  wages  and  giveth  him  not  for  his 
work,"  ^  implies  that  there  is  a  building  which  is 
right,  and  a  hiring  of  service  which  is  honorable. 
"  Riches  kept  by  the  owner  thereof  to  their  hurt  "  ^ 
indicates  that  they  may  be  employed  to  advan- 
tage. The  condemnation  of  an  evil  use  is  not  the 
same  as  the  condemnation  of  all  use ;  and  the 
mere  fact  that  it  is  always  the  abuse,  not  the  use, 
of  property  which  is  condemned,  implies  that  there 
is  a  use  which  is  commendable.  There  is  as  little 
authority  in  the  New  Testament  as  in  the  Old  for 
the  indiscriminate  condemnation  of  private  prop- 
erty. Christ  repeats  the  beatitude  of  the  Hebrew 
Psalter :  "  Blessed   are   the   meek,  for   they  shall 

^  Laveleye,  Socialism  of  To-day,  Introd.  p.  xix. 

2  Deut.  viii.  18.  »  jgr.  jxii.  13.  ^  Eccles.  v.  13. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNIS.}f.  79 

inherit  the  earth."  He  adds  to  the  promises  of 
the  ancient  law  the  sanction  of  his  own  promise : 
"  There  is  no  man  that  hath  left  house,  or  bre- 
thren, or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or  wife,  or 
children,  or  lands,  for  my  sake,  and  the  gospel's, 
but  he  shall  receive  an  hundredfold  now  in  this 
time,  houses,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mo- 
thers, and  children,  and  lands,  with  persecutions ; 
and  in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life."  ^  These 
are  not  the  promises  of  a  communist,  or  the 
founder  of  a  communistic  system.  If  some  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament,  when  superficially 
read,  appear  to  condemn  the  acquisition  of  prop- 
erty, a  more  careful  reading  corrects  the  misappre- 
hension. Christ  does  indeed  say,  "  Woe  unto  you 
that  are  rich  ; "  ^  but,  in  adding  the  reason,  "  for 
you  have  received  your  consolation,"  he  both  inter- 
prets and  limits  the  woe  to  those  who  have  made 
riches  the  object  of  life.  Paul  does  indeed  declare 
that  they  who  toill  ^  be  rich  fall  into  temptation, 
but  both  the  original  and  the  context  make  it  clear 
that  he  condemns  only  those  who  make  the  acqui- 
sition of  riches  the  purpose  of  their  life.  It  is 
indeed  true  that  James  denounces  rich  men,  but  it 
is  rich  men  who   have  "  lived  in  pleasure  on  the 

1  Mark  x.  30.  I  can  see  no  reason  for  thinking  this  means 
merely  greater  enjoyment  of  what  the  disciple  has ;  on  its  face  it 
means  absolute  increase  of  possession,  and  history  confirms  the 
promise  as  thus  understood. 

2  Luke  vi.  24. 

^  Tim.  vi.  9.  hi  Se  fiov\6fxivoi  irXovrelv,  i.  e.  those  who  will  to 
be  rich. 


80         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

earth  and  been  wanton."  ^  It  is  true  that  Christ 
pictures  Lazarus  as  in  Abraham's  bosom  and  the 
rich  man  as  tormented  in  hell,  but  it  is  because 
the  rich  man  passed  by  in  indifference  the  poor 
man  who  lay  uncared  for  at  his  door.^  It  is  true 
that  the  rich  young  ruler  is  told  to  sell  that  which 
he  has  and  give  to  the  poor  if  he  would  have 
treasure  in  heaven,  but  it  is  also  true  that  He  who 
discerned  the  secret  hearts  of  men  saw  in  this 
seeker  after  the  kingdom  one  who  "  trusted  in 
uncertain  riches,"  and  applied  to  him  the  same 
touchstone  of  loyalty  which  he  had  applied  to  the 
twelve  who  had  left  all  to  follow  the  Master.^ 

In  his  teaching,  Christ  never  condemns  private 
property  ;  he  impliedly  approves  it.  He  compares 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  a  merchantman  who  sold 
all  that  he  had  in  order  to  purchase  one  pearl.^ 
He  compares  it  to  a  capitalist  who  apportions  his 
property  among  his  stewards  in  unequal  portions ; 
unto  one  he  gave  five  talents,  to  another  two,  to 
another  one,  to  every  man  according  to  his  sev- 
eral ability.  And  in  the  day  of  reckoning  the 
only  one  who  is  condemned  is  he  who  has  done 
nothing:  to  increase  the  store  intrusted  to  him.^ 
The  command  in  the  analogous  parable,  "  Occupy 
till  I  come,"  is  rightly  rendered  by  the  Revised 
Version,  "Trade  herewith  till  I  come."  ^  And 
the  issue  of  the  parable  indicates  the  object  of 
the  trading,  —  increase  of  wealth.     It  is  indeed  a 

1  Jas.  V.  5.  2  Luke  xvi.  19-21,  25.  ^  Mark  x.  17-27. 

4  Matt.  xiii.  45,  46.     ^  Matt.  xxv.  14-30.     ^  Luke  xix.  12-27. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  81 

truism  that  there  can  be  no  distribution  without 
accumulation,  no  beneficence  without  acquisition, 
no  giving  without  something  first  obtained  which 
may  be  given. 

Christianity,  then,  puts  no  discouragement  on 
industry.  It  recognizes  the  ambition  to  acquire 
property  as  a  worthy  ambition,  provided  it  is  under 
right  direction  and  guided  to  right  ends.  The 
first  duty  a  man  owes  is  the  duty  of  earning  his 
own  livelihood,  and  the  livelihood  of  those  who  are 
intrusted  to  him.  This  is  one  of  the  foundation 
virtues.  It  underlies  all  civilization,  all  commer- 
cial well-being,  all  individual  manhood.  When 
acquisitiveness  rules  and  love  serves,  the  man  is 
wrong;  but  when  acquisitiveness  serves  and  love 
rules,  the  man  is  right.  The  ambition  to  acquire, 
if  acquisition  is  made  subordinate  to  high  and  noble 
ends,  is  a  noble  ambition. 

Christ's  cure  for  the  evils  of  acquisitiveness  is 
not  communistic.  It  is  that  intimated  in  the  para- 
ble of  the  talents  before  referred  to.  Property  is 
a  trust.  Whatever  a  man  possesses  is  given  to 
him,  but  the  gift  is  not  absolute ;  it  is  a  gift  in 
trust.  He  is  to  use  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
community.  He  is  to  consider  himself  only  as  a 
single  member  of  that  community.  The  doctrine 
that  property  is  a  trust  is  implied  in  the  law, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  If 
love  means  emotional  ecstacies,  this  is  not  a  com- 
mand to  love  at  all.  No  man  is  entranced  by  his 
own  picture,  thrilled  by  his  own  love-letters,  or  de- 


82         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

sirous  to  caress  himself.  To  love  one's  neighbor 
as  one's  self  is  to  count  one's  self  one  of  the  com- 
munity, and  treat  all  as  worthy  of  equal  consid- 
eration. If  it  is  right  to  respect  a  neighbor's 
property,  it  is  right  to  respect  one's  own ;  but  it 
is  not  right  to  have  one  law  for  one's  self  and  an- 
other for  the  neighbor.^  He  who  loves  his  neigh- 
bor as  himself  will  count  his  own  interests  part  of 
the  common  interests ;  his  rights  will  be  measured 
in  his  judgment  by  the  rights  of  his  neighbor. 
Personal  welfare  and  public  welfare  will  become 
identified.  Egoism  and  altruism  will  be  coopera- 
tive, not  conflicting.  The  doctrine  that  property 
is  a  trust  is  explicit  in  the  teachings  of  Christ  con- 
cerning property.  Man  is  a  steward  ;  to  different 
men  are  given  different  possessions  ;  each  one  is  to 
trade  with  the  talents  intrusted  to  him,  but  all  are 
to  give  account  to  the  Master  in  a  future  day  of 
reckoning.^  Christ  reinforces  this  truth  by  show- 
ing the  wisdom  as  well  as  the  beauty  of  beneficence. 
Even  the  unjust  steward,  who  does  not  care  for  his 
Master's  interests,  or  for  those  of  the  tenants,  is 
shrewd  enough  to  seek  the  tenants'  favor  by  his 
administration  of  his  Master's  estate  for  the  ten- 
ants' benefit.^  The  right  use  of  property  is  one  of 
the  tests  of  the  judgment  day.  The  faithful  and 
wise  servant  is  one  who  sees  that  his  Lord  has 
made  him  ruler  in  order  that  he  may  give  to  the 
servants   of   the   household  meat  in  due  season.'^ 

1  See  Ps.  xii.  2  ;  Deut.  xxv.  13-15.  ^  Matt.  xxv.  14-30. 

8  Luke  xvi.  1-12.  ^  Luke  xii.  42. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  83 

Not  skill  to  acquire,  but  skill  to  bestow,  is  evi- 
dence of  wisdom.  The  man  who,  when  his  barns 
are  full  to  bursting,  purposes  to  build  greater  barns 
for  more  grain,  and  whom  the  world  calls  shrewd 
and  prosperous,  Christ  calls  Fool !  ^  For  such  a 
man  knows  only  how  to  accumulate,  not  how  to 
distribute.  Once  Christ  affords  a  picture  of  the 
contrast  between  Paradise  and  Gehenna.^  He  who 
is  sentenced  to  torment  is  the  rich  man  who  did 
not  recognize  this  law  of  trust,  but  left  the  poor 
at  his  gate  uncared  for.  Once  Christ  furnishes  a 
dramatic  picture  of  the  day  of  judgment.'^  Men 
are  separated  before  the  Son  of  Man  in  that  day, 
one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep 
from  the  goats.  And  the  blessed  are  those  who 
have  used  their  opportunities  to  feed  the  hungry, 
clothe  the  naked,  visit  the  stranger,  comfort  the 
imprisoned ;  and  the  outcast  are  those  who  did  not 
so  use  them.  This  is  Christ's  law  of  ownership. 
Property  is  a  trust.  Every  man  who  has  property 
is  a  trustee.  Whether  it  is  one  dollar  or  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  million  dollars,  in  no  way  affects 
the  nature  of  the  responsibility.  Any  man  who 
uses  his  property,  or  any  part  of  his  property,  for 
himself  alone,  is  guilty  of  a  breach  of  trust.  He 
is  a  defaulter  before  God.  For  his  defalcation 
he  must  at  the  last  give  account.  It  will  not  be 
enough  that  he  has  earned  the  money  honestly; 
nor  that  he  has  not  used  it  oppressively ;  nor  that 
he  has  given  certain  portions  of  it  —  a  tenth,  for 

1  Luke  xii.  lH-21.       -'  Luke  xvi.  19-31.       ^  Matt.  xxv.  31-46. 


84 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 


example  —  in  what  he  calls  benevolence.  It  is  not 
his  to  use.  No  part  of  it  is  his  to  use.  To  the 
affirmation,  "  What 's  mine  's  mine,"  the  answer 
of  Christ  is,  "  It  is  not."  No  man  owns  anything. 
At  the  last  every  man  must  meet  the  question, 
"  How  have  you  administered  the  trust  ?  "  If  he 
is  wise  he  will  be  asking  himself  this  question  day 
by  day. 

This  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  poetic, 
allegorical,  fanciful.  The  proj)het  by  intuition 
perceives  what  slow-thoughted  science  by  patient 
investigation  subsequently  demonstrates.  The  doc- 
trine that  property  is  a  trust  rests  on  a  scientific 
basis.  It  is  the  teaching  of  political  science  as 
well  as  of  the  Christian  religion. 

In  forty  years,  from  1850  to  1890,  the  wealth  of 
this  country  is  estimated  to  have  grown  from  a 
little  over  seven  thousand  million  to  a  little  over 
sixty-five  thousand  million,  or  from  $307  per 
capita  to  $1,036.01  per  capita.^  What  is  the 
secret  of  this  marvelous  growth  in  wealth  ? 

It  is,  first  of  all,  discovery.^  We  have  found  in 
this  land    unmeasured  wealth,  which  God  has  in 

1  The  exact  figures  as  given  by  the  census  reports  are  as  fol- 
lows :  — 


1850 
1860 
1870' 
1880 
1890 


23,191.876 
31,443.321 

38,558,371 
50,1.55,783 
02,622,250 


$7,135,780,228 
16,159,616,068 
30,068,518,507 
43,642,000,000 
65,037,091,197 


$307.68 
513.93 
779.82 
870.13 

1,036.01 


1  Currency  =  about  $24,000,000  in  gold. 
2  See  ch.  vi.  for  specific  figures. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  85 

ages  long  past  stored  here,  —  forests  in  Northern 
and  Northwestern  States,  waiting  to  do  obeisance 
to  the  woodman's  axe ;  water-jjower  in  North- 
eastern streams,  waiting  to  be  lassoed  and  har- 
nessed by  Yankee  enterprise  ;  harbors  and  great 
river-ways,  built  long  before  river  and  harbor  bills 
were  dreamed  of ;  coal  in  Pennsylvania  mines  and 
oil  in  subterranean  reservoirs,  waiting  for  pick  and 
blast  to  call  them  forth  ;  wheat  and  corn,  sleeping 
in  Western  prairies  until  Prince  Labor  should 
awaken  them  with  his  wand  to  fruitful  life  ;  gold 
and  silver  in  Colorado  and  California  mines,  im- 
prisoned until  civilization  should  unbolt  their 
prison  doors  and  summon  them  forth.  To  whom 
belong  of  right  these  treasures  which  are  not  of 
our  making  ?  To  the  people  first  in  possession  of 
the  soil  ?  Then  they  belong  to  the  despoiled  Indian 
races.  To  the  first  discoverers?  Then  to  the 
Spanish  and  French  races;  certainly  not  to  the 
present  owners,  who  are  neither  the  discoverers 
nor  their  heirs  or  assigns.  To  the  men  who  bring 
them  from  their  hiding-places  and  make  them  of 
value  to  mankind  ?  Then  the  forest  belongs  to 
the  woodman,  the  coal  mine  to  the  operator,  the 
prairie  to  the  cultivator  of  the  soil.  Something 
might  perhaps  be  said  for  each  of  those  hypo- 
theses ;  the  one  hypothesis  that  cannot  easily  be 
defended  in  the  court  of  reason,  upon  any  theory, 
is  the  hypothesis  on  which  we  have  in  fact  acted,  — 
that  they  belong  of  right  to  the  strongest  (or  to  the 
most  grasping  and  unscrupulous)  in  a  struggle,  not 


86        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

for  existence,  but  for  luxury  and  power.  This 
wealth  has  been  like  a  shower  of  silver  pieces  flung 
out  into  a  populous  Italian  street  by  a  passer-by. 
We  have  all  scrambled  for  it ;  a  few  of  the  strong- 
est have  won  the  prize,  and  the  rest  look  on  with 
covetous  eyes.  This  wealth  of  the  continent  was 
here  when  our  ancestors  arrived  here.  It  is  not 
the  product  of  our  capacity  and  our  industry.  It 
belongs  to  Him  who  put  it  here.  And  unless  we 
suppose  that  He  put  it  here  for  the  benefit  of  a 
few  men,  unless  we  deny  that  He  is  the  Father 
''  from  whom  every  family  in  heaven  and  on  earth 
is  named,"  then  it  was  put  here  for  the  benefit  of 
all  his  children.  Whether  it  is  administered  by 
the  nation  as  a  nation,  or  by  individuals  to  whom 
the  course  of  events  has  given  control  of  it,  it  is  a 
sacred  trust  for  all,  not  the  special  privilege  and 
possession  of  the  few. 

It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  volume 
to  discuss  the  Single  Tax ;  nor  the  doctrine  on 
which  it  rests,  that  land  is  not  a  proper  subject  of 
jDersonal  ownership.  It  is  certain  that  the  land 
and  its  contents  were  recognized  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment law  as  belonging  to  God  as  the  King  of  the 
Hebrew  people.^  It  is  equally  certain  that  the  law 
of  eminent  domain  recognizes  no  less  the  doctrine 
that  in  the  last  analysis  they  belong  to  the  sovereign 
power  of  the  nation,  whei-ever  that  power  may  be 
lodged.  If  land  is  made  a  subject  of  private 
ownership,  it  is  only  because  the  sovereign  power 

J  Lev.  XXV.  23  ;  Deut.  xxii.  43  :  2  Chron.  vii.  20 ;  Joel  iii.  2. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  87 

deems  such  an  arrangement  better  for  the  common 
welfare  than  is  common  ownership.  Whether  that 
opinion  is  correct  or  not,  is  not  primarily  a  ques- 
tion of  morals  but  of  economics,  and  questions 
of  economics  it  is  not  my  purpose  in  this  volume 
to  discuss.  It  is  enough  here  to  point  out  the 
unquestionable  fact  that,  if  land  and  its  contents 
are  proper  subjects  of  personal  ownership,  they 
are  so  only  on  the  hypothesis  that  the  owner  is  a 
trustee,  and  that  by  such  trusteeship  the  com- 
mon welfare  is  better  promoted  than  by  joint  con- 
trol. There  is  neither  moral  nor  scientific  basis 
—  nor,  for  that  matter,  historical  or  legal  basis  — 
for  the  notion  that  the  land  and  its  contents  be- 
long, or  can  by  any  possibility  belong,  to  the  acci- 
dental owner  to  use  for  himself,  in  disregard  of 
public  welfare.  The  scientific  alternative  is  be- 
tween personal  ownership  in  trust  for  the  commu- 
nity, and  public  or  communal  ownership. 

Next  to  discovery  of  wealth  hidden  in  the  earth 
is  what  we  call  invention,  which  is,  in  truth,  simply 
the  discovery  and  application  of  a  like  wealth  hid- 
den in  the  forces  of  nature.  We  are  rich  beyond 
all  previous  ages  because  we  have  found  a  way 
to  make  Nature  do  our  work  and  accumulate  our 
wealth  for  us.  God  puts  his  power  at  our  disposal. 
He  is  the  Genius  of  the  lamp  who  has  come  to  do 
our  bidding,  —  to  be,  as  it  were,  our  servant.  His 
watercourses  grind  our  grist  for  us ;  his  fire  sum- 
mons from  the  water  its  secret  energy,  and  puts  at 
our  service  unestimated  horse-power  to  drive  our 


88         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

machinery  for  us ;  his  lightning  comes  from  the 
clouds  to  carry  our  messages,  and  light  our  streets 
and  public  halls  and  private  houses.  The  ancient 
Hebrew  literature  contains  the  story  of  blind  Sam- 
son grinding  in  the  prison  of  his  enemies.  In 
America  it  is  God  who  is  grinding  for  his  children  ; 
we  are  blind,  not  He.  There  is  not  a  spark  of 
electricity  that  runs  across  the  wires,  not  a  sound 
that  trembles  on  the  telephone,  not  a  throb  of  the 
steam-engine,  not  a  drop  of  falling  water  in  cascades, 
which  is  not  the  work  of  God.  For  whom  ?  For 
the  few  fortunate  men  who  have  had  the  skill  to 
discover  these  latent  forces,  or  the  sagacity  to  take 
advantage  of  some  one  else's  discovery  ?  No,  for 
his  entire  family.  There  is  a  reason  in  justice,  and 
a  reason  in  expediency,  why  the  nation  should  give 
a  large  measure  of  the  first  profits  to  the  men  whose 
insight  first  discovers,  whose  wisdom  first  applies 
to  useful  service,  these  divine  forces.  But  the 
forces  themselves  are  not  private  proj)erty ;  they 
belong  to  humanity.  The  very  existence  of  our 
patent  laws  is  public  testimony  to  the  truth  that 
every  such  force  is  public  property ;  private  prop- 
erty only  so  far  as  the  public  chooses  for  its  own 
benefit  to  relinquish  its  larger  right. 

A  third  source  of  national  wealth  has  been  in 
franchises  created  by  the  people  for  the  public 
welfare,  and  transformed  into  private  wealth 
through  public  neglect  and  j^rivate  sagacity.  The 
railroads  of  the  United  States  are  estimated  as 
worth  above  ten  thousand  million  dollars,  about 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNIS Jf.  89 

one  half  of  which  is  represented  by  stock.^     What 
gives   them   their  value?     It  is  not  the  roadbed, 
the  iron  or  steel  rails,  the  stations  and  surrounding 
grounds:    it  is  that   the  railroads   are  the  public 
highways.     Formerly  our  public  highways  afforded 
poor  facilities  for  locomotion,  but  they  were  free ; 
now  they  afford   admirable   facilities  for  locomo- 
tion, but  they  are  private  property.     The  telegraph 
wires  are  the  nerves  of  the  nation  ;  the  railroads 
are  its  arterial  system.     The  body  politic  has  sold 
or  given  away  its  nerves  and  its  arteries.  The  nation 
could  well   afford   to  pay  liberally  the    men  who 
invented  the  telegraph  and  created  the  railroad 
system.     It  could  afford  to  pay  well  for  poles  and 
wires,  for  roadbed  and   stations.     If  it  choose  to 
leave  pole  and  wire,  roadbed    and   station,  under 
private  control,  it  may  certainly  do  so.     Whether 
that  is  wise  or  not  is  matter  for  further  considera- 
tion.    Here  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  the  wealth 
of  both  telegraph  and  railroad,  of  long  interstate 
lines  and  of  short  electric  or  horse-car  lines,  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  indispensable  means  of 
inter-communication  ;  this  wealth  is  derived  from 
the  public  and  belongs  to  the  public.     Like  the 
wealth  of  the  forests,  the  mines,  and  the  prairies, 
like  the  wealth  of  gravitation,  fire,  electricity,  it 
is  a  wealth  of  the  people,  and  belongs  of  right  to 
the  people. 
'  Twenty-five  years  ago  this  was  radical,  not  to  say 

1  Beport  of  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  1894,  on  Statistics 
of  Railways  in  the  U.  S.,  267. 


90         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

revolutionary,  doctrine.  It  is  so  no  longer.  It  is 
established  and  recognized  law.  The  courts  have 
affirmed  that  the  railroads  are  the  highways  of  the 
nation,  and  that  the  railroad  companies  are  the 
servants  of  the  nation  and  are  subject  to  its  con- 
trol.^ Both  state  and  national  legislation  are 
based  upon  this  fundamental  principle.  The  ap- 
pointment of  Railroad  Commissioners  by  the  State, 
the  creation  of  an  Interstate  Commission  by  the 
nation,  both  assume  the  correctness  of  this  prin- 
ciple. So  far  as  these  great  franchises  are  con- 
cerned, the  law  of  the  land  and  the  principles  of 
Jesus  Christ  agree.  Railroad  property  is  a  trust ; 
the  owners  are  trustees  ;  and  the  trust  is  one  which 
the  courts  will  compel  the  trustees  to  administer  in 
the  interest  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  people. 

But  if  these  elements  of  wealth  —  the  land  and 
its  contents,  natural  forces  and  their  uses,  and  the 
great  highways  —  are  somewhat  more  apparently 
common  wealth  than  are  the  products  of  individual 
industry  of  hand  and  brain,  they  are  not  really 
more  so.  Not  only  these  values,  but  all  values  of 
any  considerable  consequence,  are  themselves  the 
products  of  that  civilization  which  is  the  common 
contribution  of  the  nation.  The  wealth  of  America 
has  attracted  hither  millions  of  immigrants,  and 
has  given  to  our  country  a  growth  unprecedented, 
which  fills  the  student  of  national  life  sometimes 
with  a  sense  of  exaltation,  sometimes  with  a  sense 

1  See  cases  cited  by  A.  B.  Stickney  :  The  Railway  Problem,  Ap- 
pendix, p.  239. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNISM.  91 

of  awe  akin  to  alarm.  But  it  is  this  immigration 
which  has  created  the  wealth.  These  hungry 
mouths  have  given  a  value  to  our  breadstuffs  ;  these 
multiplied  homes  have  made  a  market  for  our  coal ; 
these  rushing  hordes  of  immigrants  and  traders 
have  enriched  our  railway  companies.  No  man 
ever  by  himself  created  or  ever  can  create  wealth. 
Into  the  locomotive  have  entered  the  hopes  and 
fears,  the  successes  and  failures,  the  labors  and 
achievements,  of  many  lives  now  ended.  The  rail- 
road owner  cannot  and  does  not  recompense  the 
grave.  Our  best  vases  to-day  cost  Palissy  the  pot- 
ter many  a  pang,  though  he  never  saw  them  ;  and 
for  the  sake  of  them  his  wife  and  children  often 
went  supperless  to  bed.  Can  we  pay  them?  The 
wharfage  of  New  York  city,  which,  with  reckless 
lack  of  prevision,  has  been  allowed  to  become 
private  property,  is  valued  solely  because  of  the 
three  million  people  who  live  on  and  about  Man- 
hattan Island.  Every  farmer  in  Illinois  helps  to 
enhance  the  value  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road ;  every  shopkeeper  in  New  York  adds  to 
the  value  of  every  w^arehouse.  Thus  it  is  clear 
that  our  wealth  is,  in  its  source  and  origin,  a  com- 
mon wealth.  Our  system  of  exchange  is  a  rude 
method  of  balancing  values  with  one  another. 
Possibly  there  may  be  no  better  one  discoverable  ; 
possibly  no  amendment  of  it  may  be  conceivable. 
But  no  thouo'htful  man  will  contend  that  it  affords 
absolute  adjustment  or  represents  a  divine  equity. 
The  wealth  of    everv  millionaire  comes  from  the 


92         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

resources  of  the  land  of  which  he  has  got  con- 
trol ;  or  from  natural  forces,  the  chief  grist  of 
which  falls  into  his  bag ;  or  from  public  fran- 
chises, given  by  the  State  and  created  by  the 
State ;  or  from  that  general  profit  which  grows 
spontaneously  out  of  the  presence  and  power  of  a 
generally  diffused  civilization  and  an  increasing 
population.  The  least  part  of  it  is  that  which  his 
own  effort  has  created. 

It  does  not  follow  that  all  this  property  is  to  be 
held  in  common  and  administered  in  common,  but 
it  does  follow  that  every  man  who  controls  any 
part  of  this  property,  whether  it  has  come  from  the 
soil,  or  from  natural  forces,  or  from  public  high- 
ways, or  from  what  he  calls  private  enterj^rise,  has 
taken  it  from  the  hands  of  God,  and  is  to  adminis- 
ter it  in  trust  for  humanity.  That  is  the  doctrine 
of  Christianity.  It  leaves  to  the  people  individual 
enterprise  ;  it  contemplates  and  intends  variations 
of  wealth  and  of  condition  ;  but  it  maintains  this 
fundamental  principle :  That  every  man  is  a  trus- 
tee, and  every  man  must  account  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  trust. 

He  is  a  trustee,  first  of  all,  for  his  own  family. 
Whatever  money  comes  to  us  we  are  to  hold  in 
trust,  first,  for  our  own  household,  not  for  luxury, 
which  enervates  and  destroys,  but  for  education, 
culture,  development.  We  have  not  only  a  right, 
but  a  duty,  to  make  provision  for  the  manhood  of 
our  boys  and  the  womanhood  of  our  girls. 

Next,  we  are    trustees    for   those    who    are    en- 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNISM.  93 

gaged  with  us  in  industrial  life.  A  writer  in  the 
"  Forum  "  a  few  years  ago  expressed  the  following 
judgment :  — 

"  I  admit  —  no,  I  assert  —  the  demands  of  charity  on 
every  human  being,  but  charity  and  business  are  and 
forever  ought  to  be  divorced.  An  employer  is  under 
no  more  financial  obligation  to  his  workmen  after  he 
has  paid  their  current  wages  than  they  are  to  him,  or  to 
a  passer-by  on  the  street  whom  they  never  saw."  ^ 

I  believe  that  is  an  unchristian  heresy.  Every 
man  who  has  workingmen  in  his  employ  is  a  trus- 
tee for  them.  He  and  they  are  in  a  true  sense 
partners  engaged  in  a  common  entei'prise.  He 
owes  them  an  obligation  which  wages  do  not  meet. 
The  first  duty  of  an  employer  to  his  employed  is 
the  duty  of  loyalty.  When  a  ship  founders  in 
storm,  the  captain  is  not  the  first  to  abandon  her, 
leaving  the  crew  to  go  down.  When  a  regiment  is 
in  peril  in  battle,  the  colonel  does  not  flee  and  leave 
the  reoiment  to  2:0  under  the  sod.  When  the 
Christians  in  Armenia  are  trembling  in  fear  of 
martyrdom,  the  missionaries  do  not  follow  the 
advice  given  to  them  and  flee  to  the  coast  for  pro- 
tection. They  stay  with  their  native  Christian 
brethren  so  long  as  staying  can  be  of  any  possible 
service.  And  the  time  will  come  when  every  mer- 
chant and  every  manufacturer  will  follow  the 
example  which  is  now  set  by  many  a  merchant  and 

1  W.  A.  Croffut :  "  What  Rights  have  Laborers  ?  "  Forum, 
May,  1886. 


94         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

many  a  manufacturer,  and  will  stand  by  his  crew 
in  stormy  times. ^ 

Lastly,  there  is  the  trust  held  by  men  of  wealth 
for  the  benefit  of  the  entire  community. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this  term,  "  men  of 
wealth  "  ?  It  cannot  be  accurately  defined.  For 
what  is  wealth  in  one  community,  one  class,  or  one 
epoch,  is  not  in  another.  But,  for  my  purposes 
here,  I  will  define  the  man  of  wealth  as  one  who, 
after  fulfilling  his  trust  to  his  own  family  by  pro- 
viding adequately  for  tiieir  best  equipment,  and 
fulfilling  his  trust  to  his  copartners,  without  whose 
cooperative  industry  his  accumulations  would  have 
been  impossible,  still  has  a  surplus.  That  surplus 
belongs  to  the  community;  it  has  been  derived 
from  the  community  ;  and  it  is  to  be  administered 
for  the  benefit  of  the  community. 

Every  man  ought  to  aim  at  securing  something 
of  such  a  surplus,  not  merely  as  a  provision 
against  the  accidents  of  life  or  the  infirmities  of 
old  age,  not  merely  as  a  provision  against  accidents 
or  infirmities  which  may  involve  his  household  or 
his  business  copartners  in  misfortune,  but  also  as 

^  "I  said:  'You  prefer  then,  to  live  surrounded  by  your  em- 
ployees, and  do  not  mind  the  white  flutter  of  washing-days,  or  the 
shouts  of  children  at  play  below,  because  you  think  you  can  bet- 
ter their  lot  by  your  presence  ?  '  '  It  is  not,  with  me,  a  question 
of  preference  at  all,'  was  the  reply.  '  This  mill  and  these  people 
are  my  life,  my  career,  the  next  greatest  responsibility  I  have  in 
the  world  after  that  of  my  own  family.  I  dare  as  soon  desert  my 
flag  in  action  as  leave  my  hands  without  their  natural  and  ap- 
pointed head.  Good-by.' "  —  Pidgeon.  Old- World  Questions  and 
New-World  Answers,  p.  128. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    COMMUNISM.  95 

a  means  of  giving  back  to  the  community,  in  some 
form,  the  wealth  which  the  community  has  enabled 
him  to  accumulate.  But  every  man  ought  to  recog- 
nize the  truth  that  benevolence  does  not  consist 
merely  in  distributing  his  surplus.  Benevolence  is 
the  law  of  life,  not  of  this  small  fragment  of  life. 
All  property,  not  merely  the  surplus,  is  subject  to 
the  law  of  love. 

Is  there  any  use  in  rich  men  ?     Is  it  of  advan- 
tage to  the  community  that  there  should  be  men  in 
it  who,  having  discharged  their  duty  to  their  fami- 
lies and  to  their  copartners,  have  still  a  surplus 
which  they  can  employ  either   in  business  enter- 
prises or   in  so-called  benevolences  for  the  public 
welfare?     This  is  one  of  the  critical  questions  of 
our   times.      However    impatient   men    of    wealth 
may  be  that  this  question  should  be  asked,  how- 
ever indignant  they  may  be  with  the  questioners, 
it  is  well  for  them  to  know  that  democracy  is  ask- 
ing this  question,  and  is  seriously  determined  to  get 
an  answer  to  it.     While  on  the  one  hand  concen- 
tration of  wealth  has  certainly  increased  during  the 
past  century,  if  it  is  not  now   increasing,  on  the 
other  hand  it  is  equally  certain  that  wages  are  ris- 
ing, that  interest  is  dimhiishing,  and  that  the  power 
of  men  of  wealth  to  transmit  their  surplus  to  suc- 
ceeding generations  has  been  materially  lessened, 
and  is  likely  to  be  lessened  still  more.     The  most 
casual  student  of  political  and  industrial   history 
in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  cannot  fail 
to  see,  in  the  progressive  Income  Tax,  in  the  pro- 
gressive Inheritance  Tax,  in  the  Single  Tax  move- 


96        CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

ment,  and  in  the  socialistic  or  semi-socialistic  de- 
mands for  the  extension  of  governmental  control 
over  certain  forms  of  industry,  protests  against  the 
concentration  of  wealth,  and  demands  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  surplus  by  democratic  methods, 
—  protests  far  too  powerful  to  be  treated  with  con- 
tempt. Personally  I  concur  with  Frederic  Harri- 
son in  both  the  opinions  which  he  expresses  in  the 
following  significant  paragraph  :  — 

"  My  own  creed,  on  which  this  is  not  the  time  or  place 
to  enlarge,  teaches  me  that  in  our  industrial  age  all  wealth 
is  really  the  product  of  thousands  working  together  in 
ways  of  which  they  are  not  conscious,  and  with  complex 
and  subtle  relations  that  no  analysis  can  apportion.  The 
rich  man  is  simply  the  man  who  has  managed  to  put 
himself  at  the  end  of  the  long  chain,  or  into  the  centre  of 
an  intricate  convolution,  and  wliom  society  and  law  suffer 
to  retain  the  joint  product  conditionally  ;  partly  because 
it  is  impossible  to  apportion  the  just  shares  of  the  co- 
operators,  and  partly  because  it  is  the  common  interest 
that  the  products  should  be  kept  in  a  mass  and  freely 
used  for  the  public  good.  But  this  personal  appropri- 
ation of  wealth  is  a  social  convention,  and  jiurely  condi- 
tional on  its  proving  to  be  convenient.  The  great  prob- 
lem which  the  next  century  will  have  seriously  to  take 
in  hand  and  finally  solve  is  this  :  Are  rich  men  likely 
to  prove  of  any  real  social  use,  or  will  it  be  better  for 
society  to  abolish  the  institution  ?  For  my  own  part,  I 
see  many  ways  in  which  they  can  be  of  use,  and  I  ear- 
nestly invite  them  to  convince  the  public  of  this  before  it 
is  too  late."  ^ 

^  "  Uses  of  Rich  Men  in  a  Republic,"  Forum,  Dec,  1893,  vol.  xvi. 
pp.  487,  488. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNISM.  97 

They  certainly  cannot  convince  the  public  of 
their  usefulness  by  personal  extravagance,  by  ex- 
pending their  wealth  on  palatial  residences,  sump- 
tuous repasts,  competitive  displays  in  dress,  and 
then  seeking  to  defend  their  course  by  the  affirma- 
tion, which  deceives  no  one,  not  even  themselves, 
that  they  are  thus  furnishing  employment  to  labor. 
Nor  will  they  succeed  any  better  in  convincing  the 
public  of  their  utility  by  retaining  their  property 
in  their  own  possession  until  death  relaxes  their 
grip  upon  it,  and  then  bestowing  it  in  miscalled 
public  benefactions  by  their  will.  "  What  is 
wrested  from  me,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  by  the 
gripe  of  death,  I  can  in  no  true  sense  be  said  to 
give  ;  and  yet  we  hear  of  the  bounty  and  munifi- 
cence of  A  or  B,  and  that  such  and  such  a  hospital 
was  founded  at  the  sole  costs  and  charges  of  C, 
when  there  was  neither  bounty  nor  munificence, 
since  nothing  can  be  given  whicli  is  not  also  taken 
away  from  the  giver  ;  but  nothing  is  here  taken 
from  any  giver  by  the  bequest  he  makes,  for  it  is 
already  gone  ;  nor  are  there  any  costs  or  charges  in 
the  case,  for  no  man  can  spend  his  money,  any  more 
than  he  can  walk  in  Bond  Street  or  Hyde  Park, 
after  he  is  dead."  ^ 

There  is  only  one  way  in  which  rich  men  can 
justify  their  existence  to  the  community.  It  is  by 
using,  in  the  administration  of  their  trust  for  the 
public,  the  capacities  with  which  they  have  been 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  Nov.,  1890  (vol.  xxviii.  p.  685)  Mr.  Car- 
negie's "  Gospel  of  Wealth." 


98         CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

endowed,  and  by  which  they  have  acquired  the 
wealth  which  it  is  their  duty  to  distribute.  Those 
of  us  whose  surplus  is  not  large,  or  who  have  none 
at  all,  must  frankly  recognize  the  difficulty  of  the 
task  which  his  exceptional  position  lays  upon  the 
man  of  wealth.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  give 
money  to  the  individual  without  danger  of  pauper- 
izing the  individual ;  it  is  not  easy  to  give  money 
to  the  comnmnity  without  danger  of  pauperizing 
the  community.  But  if  the  men  whose  abilities 
have  enabled  them  to  accumulate  wealth  have  not 
also  the  ability  to  distribute  it  wisely,  a  democratic 
age  will  find  a  way  to  distribute  that  surplus  by 
democratic  methods,  which  is  only  another  way  of 
saying  that  the  providence  of  God  will  deprive 
them  of  a  trust  which  they  lack  either  the  fidelity 
or  the  capacity  to  administer.  This  is  not  com- 
munism :  it  is  simply  the  affirmation  of  the  self- 
evident  principle,  that  a  trustee  who  is  unfaithful 
in  the  administration  of  his  trust  cannot  be  and 
will  not  be  left  in  charge  of  it.  The  railroad 
millionaire  may  well  question  w^hat  proportion  of 
his  wealth  should  go  into  colleges,  hospitals,  or 
other  public  charities,  and  what  into  new  railroads, 
opening  up  new  countries  and  making  possible  new 
homes  for  the  hoQieless,  and  larger  life  for  the  iui- 
prisoned  and  the  impoverished.  The  mill-owner 
may  well  believe  that  he  will  feed  more  hungry 
ones  by  enlarging  his  business  than  by  establishing 
a  soup-house.  Neither  Christianity  nor  science 
insists  upon   a  common  ownership  and  a  common 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    COMMUNISM.  99 

administration  of  property,  nor  upon  the  deflection 
of  any  specified  proportion  from  what  are  called 
"  business  enterprises  "  to  what  are  called  "  be- 
nevolences." But  Christianity  and  science  com- 
bine to  insist  that  every  property-owner  is  a  trustee, 
and  that  the  questions,  how  much  shall  be  spent  on 
the  family,  how  much  distributed  through  the  em- 
ployees in  wages  or  dividends,  how  much  employed 
in  enlarging  a  business  which  is  itself  beneficence, 
and  how  much  given  to  what  are  technically  re- 
garded as  charities,  are  questions,  not  between  the 
selfish  and  the  benevolent  use  of  property,  but  be- 
tween different  forms  of  fulfilling  the  same  essen- 
tial trust.  In  the  light  both  of  Christian  teaching 
and  of  scientific  teaching,  all  wealth  is  to  be  held 
and  administered  as  a  common  wealth. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

CHRISTIANITY    AND    SOCIALISM. 

If  we  are  to  understand  the  relation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  Socialism,  we  must  understand  what 
Christianity  is  and  what  Socialism  is.  But  there 
are  many  and  very  divergent  definitions  both  of 
Christianity  and  Socialism.  Some  men  regard 
Christianity  as  a  system  of  doctrine ;  some  as  a 
kind  of  worship ;  some  as  an  ecclesiastical  orga- 
nization ;  some  as  a  purely  individual  life.  The 
differences  in  definition  of  Socialism  are  quite  as 
numerous  and  quite  as  great.  Compare  these 
two  definitions,  both  by  men  eminent  for  culture, 
and  for  ripeness  and  sobriety  of  judgment.  The 
first  is  James  Russell  Lowell's  :  — 

"  Socialism  means,  or  wishes  to  mean,  cooperation 
and  community  of  interests,  sympathy  ;  the  giving  to  the 
hands,  not  so  large  a  share  as  to  the  brain,  but  a  larger 
share  than  hitherto,  in  the  wealth  they  must  combine  to 
produce ;  means,  in  short,  the  practical  application  of 
Christianity  to  life,  and  has  in  it  the  secret  of  an 
orderly  and  benign  reconstruction."  ^ 

If  that  is  a  correct  definition  of  Socialism,  I 
shoidd   hope    we    are    all    Socialists.      The    other 

^  James  Russell  Lowell,  Democracy  and  other  Addresses,  p.  40. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIALISM.  101 

definition  is  Professor  Robert  Flint's,  of  Edin- 
burgh, a  man  scarcely  less  eminent  in  his  own 
country  than  James  Russell  Lowell  is  in  ours :  — 

"  Socialism,  then,  as  I  understand  it,  is  any  theory  of 
social  organization  which  sacrifices  the  legitimate  liberty 
of  individuals  to  the  will  or  interests  of  the  community."  ^ 

It  would  be  very  difficult  to  find  any  man  any- 
where who  would  profess  to  be  a  Socialist  under 
that  definition.  One  might  say,  "  I  approve  of 
sacrificing  the  interests  of  the  individual  to  the 
interests  of  the  community,"  but  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  find  any  man  anywhere  who  would  say, 
"  I  believe  in  sacrificing  the  legitiynate  liberty  of 
individuals  to  the  will  or  interests  of  the  commu- 
nity." If  Professor  Flint's  definition  is  correct, 
there  are  no  Socialists ;  if  James  Russell  Lowell's 
is  correct,  we  are  all  Socialists. 

I  do  not  propose  to  add  another  definition  of 
Socialism;  but  I  propose  to  try  to  trace  briefly 
its  history,  and  point  out  some  of  its  character- 
istics, in  order  to  show  in  what  respects  it  agrees 
with,  in  what  it  differs  from,  Christianity. 

Men  have  attempted  to  trace  Socialism  back  to 
early  ages.  They  have  found  it  in  the  mediaeval 
church  ;  in  Plato's  "  Republic  ;  "  in  Christ's  teach- 
ing ;  in  the  teaching  of  the  Hebrew  prophets ; 
and  in  the  organization  of  the  Hebrew  theocracy. 
And  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  in  all  ages 
prophetic  souls  have   anticipated   a   better  social 

^  Robert  Flint.  Socialism,  p.  17. 


102      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

order,  one  which  shall  realize  the  hopes  of  human 
brotherhood.  Such  a  vision  of  a  future  was  the 
Theocracy  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  King- 
dom of  God  in  the  New.  Such  was  the  Republic 
of  Plato,  the  City  of  the  Sun  of  Campanella,  the 
Utopia  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  New  Atlantis  of 
Bacon,  the  Oceana  of  Harrington,  the  Voyage  to 
Icaria  of  Cabet,  the  Basiliade  of  Morelly,  the 
Society  of  Equals  of  Babeuf,  and  the  Phalanstere 
of  Fourier.  1  But,  however  true  it  may  be  that 
every  age  has  felt  a  dissatisfaction  with  the  exist- 
ing social  order  and  aspirations  for  a  social  re- 
generation, the  word  "  Socialism "  is  of  wholly 
modern  origin.  It  came  into  existence  in  the  early 
part  of  this  century  to  designate  a  widely-spread 
reaction  against  the  individualism  which  immedi- 
ately preceded  it,  as  that  in  turn  was  a  reaction 
against  the  prior  paternalism.^ 

In    the    sixteenth   century    Luther   woke    slum- 
bering   Europe    with    a    trumpet-call    to    liberty. 

^  I  do  not  mean  to  indicate  that  these  are  analogous,  except  in 
this,  that  they  indicate  a  social  unrest  in  all  ag-es,  a  strong-  sense 
in  prophets  and  poets  that  not  merely  individual  improvement, 
but  social  reconstruction,  is  necessary  to  the  highest  welfare  of 
the  human  race. 

^  The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  gives  the  date  as  1835,  and 
says  the  word  was  coined  to  designate  the  system  of  John  Owen. 
This  statement  agrees  with  Mr.  Holyoak's  History  of  Cooperation, 
vol.  i.  p.  210,  ed.  1875.  Professor  Flint  throws  some  doubt  on  this 
statement  of  the  origin  of  the  word,  but  none  on  the  fact  that  it 
first  appeared  in  the  language  about  the  year  1835,  and  as  the 
designation  of  a  system,  or  group  of  systems,  formed  in  oppo- 
sition to  individualism.     See  Flint's  Socialism,  pp.  12,  13. 


CHRISTIAX/ry   AXD    i^OCIALISM.  103 

His  fundamental  doctrine  was  not  justification  by 
faitli ;  it  was  the  individual  responsibility  of  every 
soul  to  God.  Against  the  notion  that  that  respon- 
sibility could  be  assumed  by  a  corporate  institu- 
tion, by  a  vicar  of  Christ,  he  insisted  that  every 
man  must  give  account  of  himself  to  God  ;  and 
that  every  man,  therefore,  had  not  only  a  right 
but  a  duty  of  judging  of  his  religious  obligations, 
of  framing  his  religious  opinions,  and  of  answering 
to  the  Almighty  for  those  opinions  and  for  the 
fulfillment  of  that  duty.  This  doctrine  he  kept 
within  due  bounds,  but  the  men  who  followed 
him  did  not.  Out  of  the  Lutheran  movement 
there  sprang  up  an  excessive  individualism.  In 
theology  it  led  to  what  is  known  as  the  Anti- 
nomian  movement,  that  is,  to  the  doctrine  that 
there  is  no  law,  —  that  every  man  is  free  to  do 
what  he  will ;  in  church  order,  to  sectarianism,  — 
not  only  to  a  denial  of  the  authority  of  the  Pope 
and  of  the  church,  but  also  to  a  denial  of  the 
unity  of  the  church.  The  process  of  segrega- 
tion went  on  until,  in  this  country,  there  are 
seven  great  denominations,  and,  if  you  count  the 
smaller  ones,  one  hundred  and  forty-three  different 
denominations ;  for  each  one  of  the  great  denomi- 
nations is  divided  into  smaller  ones,  according  to 
the  taste,  the  fancy,  or  the  opinions  of  those  who 
constitute  it.  Thus  you  may  belong,  if  you  like, 
to  any  one  of  six  kinds  of  Adventists,  twelve 
kinds  of  Mennonites,  twelve  kinds  of  Presbyteri- 
ans, thirteen  kinds  of  Baptists,   sixteen  kinds  of 


104      VHRISrJANJTY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

Lutherans,  seventeen  kinds  of  Methodists,  besides 
a  variety  of  Episcoj^alians  and  Congregationalists. 
And,  if  this  freedom  of  choice  does  not  satisfy 
you,  you  can  join  any  one  of  the  one  hundred 
and  fifty-three  independent  congregations  which 
have  no  fellowship  with  any  one.  Yet  there  are 
those  who  think  there  is  not  liberty  in  the  Church 
of  Christ !  1 

This  excessive  individualism  which  has  brought 
about  these  sectarian  differences  in  the  church 
appeared  in  a  similar  manner  in  government. 
Rousseau  produced  his  doctrine  of  the  Social  Con- 
tract.^ He  maintained  that  the  state  of  nature  is 
the  ideal  state.  Men,  then,  were  in  liberty,  he 
said ;  every  man  could  do  as  he  pleased.  But  men 
found  certain  advantages  would  accrue  from  com- 
bination. They  therefore  surrendered  a  part  of 
their  liberty,  contracting  one  with  another  to  give 
up  something  of  their  freedom  for  a  common  gain 
to  be  obtained  by  a  combination.  Little  by  little 
thus  they  parted  with  their  liberty.  And  Rous- 
seau tauo^ht  that  what  the  world  wanted  was  to 
return  to  a  state  of  nature,  to  annul  the  contract, 
to  reestablish  the  individualism  of  the  early  ages. 
Human  nature  he  held  to  be  naturally  good  ;  the 
evils  in  society  were  due  to  government :  abolish 
government  and  men  would  return  to  their  natural 
goodness. 

1  H.  K.  Carroll,  The  lieligious  Forces  of  the  United  States,  p.  xv. 
-  Not  original  with  him,  except  in  the  form  in  which  he  stated 
it  and  the  popularity  which  he  imparted  to  it. 


CHRISTJAXITY    AXD    SOCIALISM.  105 

The  French  are  theorists,  the  Anglo-Saxons  are 
practical.  In  a  pscudo  history,  whose  sole  au- 
thority was  a  poet's  imagination,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people  took  little  interest ;  in  a  philosophy  of  gov- 
ernment, which  promised  to  deliver  the  people  from 
the  remains  of  feudalism  and  lead  them  on  to  lib- 
erty, they  took  a  great  deal  of  interest.  Kous- 
seauism,  borrowed  by  him  from  England  and 
transported  back  again  to  England,  where  it  modi- 
fied without  revolutionizing  government,  and  to 
America,  where  it  was  accepted  as  the  foundation 
of  their  political  theories  by  a  considerable  and 
influential  class  of  American  political  reformers, 
became  this  :  The  sole  function  of  government  is  to 
govern  ;  to  protect  the  community  from  the  aggres- 
sions of  other  communities,  and  the  individual  from 
the  aggressions  of  other  individuals  :  there  its  duty 
stops.i  Its  existence  is  due  to  evil ;  it  is  itself  a 
necessary  evil,  and  consequently  the  less  govern- 
ment there  is  the  better.^ 

1  "  The  Constitution  of  Alabama  expresses  admirably  the  best 
spirit  of  American  statesmanship  when  it  states  that  '  the  sole 
and  only  leg-itimate  end  of  government  is  to  protect  the  citizen 
in  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  and  when  the 
government  assumes  other  functions  it  is  usurpation  and  oppres- 
sion.' "     W.  E.  H.  Lecky,  Democracy  and  Liberty.,  vol.  i.  p.  118. 

-  The  kinship  between  the  French,  English,  and  American 
schools  of  individualism  is  indicated  by  the  following  extracts,  — 
the  first,  a  characterization  of  the  French  doctrine  by  an  English 
interpreter,  the  best  brief  statement  I  have  been  able  to  find ;  the 
second,  the  definition  of  the  English  school  by  perhaps  its  most 
eminent  philosopher ;  and  the  third,  a  statement  of  the  radical 
American  school  by  its  most  popular  exponent :  — 

"That  complete  freedom  or  lawlessness — for  the  two  things 


106      rilRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

But  individualism  did  not  stop  here.     If  govern- 
ment is  a  necessary  evil,  it  is  not  strange  that  men 

were  supposed  to  be  identical  —  is  the  natural  condition  of  man  ; 
that  all  men  are  born  and  continue  equal  in  rights ;  that  civil 
society  is  an  artificial  state  resting-  upon  a  contract,  between  these 
sovereign  units,  whereby  the  native  independence  of  each  is  sur- 
rendered, and  a  power  over  each  is  vested  in  the  body  politic  as 
absolute  as  that  which  nature  gives  every  man  over  his  limbs ; 
'  that  human  nature  is  good,  and  that  the  evil  in  the  Avorld  is  the 
result  of  bad  education  and  bad  institutions ;  '  that  man,  uncor- 
rupted  by  civilization,  is  essentially  reasonable ;  and  that  the  will 
of  the  sovereign  units,  dwelling  in  any  territory  under  the  social 
contract,  that  is.  of  the  majority  of  them,  expressed  by  their  dele- 
gates, is  the  rightful  and  only  source  of  justice  and  of  law,  —  such 
is  the  substance  of  the  dogma  which  the  Revolution  has  been 
endeavoring  for  a  century  to  unite  to  the  reality  of  life."  W.  S. 
Lilly,  A  Century  of  Revolution,  p.  15, 

"  One  simple  principle  is  entitled  to  govern  absolutely  the  deal- 
ing of  society  with  the  individual  in  the  way  of  compulsion  and 
control,  namely,  the  principle  that  the  sole  end  for  which  man- 
kind are  warranted,  individually  or  collectively,  in  interfering 
with  the  liberty  of  action  of  any  of  their  number,  is  self-protec- 
tion, —  that  the  sole  purpose  for  which  poAver  can  be  rightfully 
exercised  over  any  member  of  a  civilized  community  against  his 
will  is  to  prevent  harm  to  others."  J.  S.  Mill  on  Liberty,  ch.  i. 
p.  21. 

"  Some  writers  have  so  confounded  societj'  with  government  as 
to  leave  little  or  no  distinction  between  them ;  whereas  they  are 
not  only  different,  but  have  different  origins.  Society  is  produced 
by  our  wants,  and  government  by  our  wickedness  ;  the  former 
promotes  our  happiness  positively  by  uniting  our  affections,  the 
latter  negatively  by  restraining  our  vices.  The  one  encourages  in- 
tercourse, the  other  creates  distinctions.  The  first  is  a  patron, 
the  last  a  punisher.  Society  in  every  state  is  a  blessing,  but  gov- 
ernment, even  in  its  be.st  state,  is  but  a  necessary  evil ;  in  its  worst 
state  an  intolerable  one  ;  for  when  we  suffer,  or  are  exposed  to 
the  same  miseries  by  a  Government  which  we  might  expect  in  a 
country  without  Government,  our  calamity  is  heightened  by  reflect- 
ing that  we  furnish  the  means  by  wliich  we  suffer.''  Thomas 
Paine,  Common  Sense,  vol.  i.  p.  G*J. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  107 

said,  Let  us  have  no  government :  abolish  it  alto- 
gether. And  so  there  grew  up  in  modern  times  — 
a  natural  product  of  Rousseau's  democracy  —  Nihil- 
ism, or  Anarchism,  —  the  doctrine  that  there  ought 
to  be  no  government.  It  is  rather  curious  to  see 
the  daily  papers  putting  Anarchism  and  Socialism 
together,  as  though  they  were  alike.  They  stand 
at  the  extreme  antipodes  of  social  thought.  They 
harmonize  only  as  extremes  meet.  Socialism  in 
its  extreme  form  is  the  abolition  of  individualism, 
—  the  doctrine  that  government  should  do  every- 
thing, that  all  industries  should  be  controlled  and 
directed  by  government  for  the  common  good. 
Nihilism  is  the  abolition  of  all  government,  the 
apotheosis  of  the  individual,  the  doctrine  that 
everything  should  be  left  to  the  individual.  "  The 
liberty  of  man,"  says  Bakunin,  the  Russian  Anar- 
chist, in  his  "  God  and  the  State,"  "  consists  solely 
in  this,  that  he  obey  the  laws  of  nature,  because  he 
has  himself  recognized  them  as  such,  and  not  be- 
cause they  have  been  imposed  upon  him  externally 
by  any  foreign  will  whatsoever,  human  or  divine, 
collective  or  individual."  ^  Such  is  Anarchism,  —  no 
government,  human  or  divine,  democratic  or  aris- 
tocratic. It  can  be  treated  as  a  phase  of  Socialism 
only  as  any  scheme  which  involves  radical  social 
revolution  is  classified  under  the  general  title  of 
Socialism.^ 


^  Encyc.  Brit.,  art.  "  Socialism." 

^  Philosophical  Anarchists  do  attempt  to  mediate  between  these 
two  antagonistic  schemes  of  society  —  the  Socialistic  and  the  An- 


108      CHRIST  I  AX  IT  Y   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  same  indiviclnalism  which  entered  the 
church  and  split  it  into  sects,  and  entered  gov- 
ernment and  led  on  to  anarchy,  entered  industry 
and  founded  what  is  known  in  political  economy 
as  the  Manchester  School,  because  it  had  its 
centre  in  Manchester.  This  doctrine  treats  man 
in  an  industry,  as  governed  only  by  self-interest. 
It  expects  and  encourages  a  perpetual  conflict  of 
interests,  and  trusts  that  an  equable  balance  and 
a  true  justice  will  be  secured  by  the  interaction 
of  purely  selfish  forces.  In  framing  a  science  of 
industry,  it  does  not  think  of  man  in  any  other 
aspect  than  as  a  being  who  desires  to  make  wealth 

archistic  —  by  insisting  that  g-overnment  must  be  social,  not  politi- 
cal ;  that  it  must  administer  industry,  not  exercise  authority  :  thus 
Prince  Krapotkin  ('"  The  Coming  Anarchy,''  Nineteenth  Century, 
vol.  xxii.  p.  149)  says  :  "  One  after  the  other  those  functions  which 
were  considered  as  the  functions  of  government  during  the  last 
two  centuries  are  disputed  ;  society  moves  better  the  less  it  is 
governed.  And  the  more  we  study  the  advance  made  in  this 
direction,  as  well  as  the  inadequacy  of  governments  to  fulfill  the 
expectations  laid  on  them,  the  more  we  are  bound  to  conclude 
that  humanity,  by  steadily  limiting  the  functions  of  government, 
is  marching  toward  reducing  them  finally  to  nil;  and  we  already 
foresee  a  state  of  society  where  the  liberty  of  the  individual  Avill 
be  limited  by  no  laws,  no  bonds,  by  nothing  else  but  his  own 
social  habits  and  the  necessity,  which  every  one  feels,  of  finding 
cooperation,  support,  and  sympathy  among  his  neighbours."  See, 
also,  ''  The  Scientific  Basis  of  Anarchy,"  Nineteenth  Century,  vol. 
xvi.  p.  238.  For  an  account  of  Bakunin,  with  quotations  from  his 
utterances,  see  Laveleye,  "  The  Socialism  of  To-day."  chap.  x. ; 
also,  "The  Rise  and  Development  of  Anarchism,"  by  Karl  Blind, 
Contemporary  Review,  \o\.  Ixv.  p.  140,  January,  1804;  and  "An 
Anarchist  on  Anarchy,"  by  Elisde  Reclus,  Contemporary  Review, 
vol.  xlv.  p.  632,  May,  1884. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIALISM.  109 

and  knows  how  to  do  it;  it  makes  no  account 
either  of  his  prejudices  and  his  passions  or  of  his 
nobler  nature.  The  world  is  regarded  as  made  up 
of  men  who  are  struggling  for  wealth,  and  the 
problem  of  political  economy  as  how  to  organize 
society  out  of  the  units  engaged  in  this  struggle. 
To  do  this  the  Manchester  School  proposes  to  take 
off  all  shackles,  remove  all  restraints,  let  the 
laborer  sell  his  labor  where  he  will,  and  the  cap- 
italist hire  his  labor  where  he  will :  thus,  as  it  ex- 
pects, true  values  will  be  ascertained  ;  workingmen 
will  get  the  wages  they  deserve,  and  capitalists  the 
services  they  deserve.  This  mass  of  men  who 
desire  to  get  wealth,  and  whom  Political  Economy 
is  to  consider  as  though  they  desired  nothing- 
else,  are  to  be  left  to  struggle  together,  and  the 
man  who  best  deserves  the  reward  will  get  it. 
The  function  of  government  is  reduced  to  a  mini- 
mum, —  the  function  of  protection.  Says  Adam 
Smith :  — 

"All  systems  either  of  preference  or  of  restraint, 
therefore,  being  completely  taken  away,  the  obvious  and 
simple  system  of  natural  liberty  establishes  itself  of  its 
own  accord.  Every  man,  as  long  as  he  does  not  violate 
the  laws  of  justice,  is  left  jjerfectly  free  to  pursue  his  own 
interest  in  his  own  way,  and  to  bring  both  his  industry 
and  capital  into  competition  with  those  of  any  other 
man,  or  order  of  men.  The  sovereign  is  completely  dis- 
charged from  a  duty,  in  the  attempting  to  perform 
which  he  must  always  be  exposed  to  innumerable 
delusions,  and  for  the  proper  performance  of  which  no 


110      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

human  wisdom  or  knowledge  could  ever  be  sufficient,  — 
the  duty  of  superintending  the  industry  of  private 
people,  and  of  directing  it  towards  the  employments 
most  suitable  to  the  interests  of  the  society.  According 
to  the  system  of  natural  liberty,  the  sovereign  has  only 
three  duties  to  attend  to,  —  three  duties  of  great  impor- 
tance, indeed,  but  plain  and  intelligible  to  common  un- 
derstandings, —  first,  the  duty  of  protecting  the  society 
from  the  violence  and  invasion  of  other  independent 
societies  ;  secondly,  the  duty  of  protecting,  as  far  as 
possible,  every  member  of  the  society  from  the  injustice 
or  oppression  of  every  other  member  of  it,  or  the  duty 
of  establishing  an  exact  administration  of  justice  ;  and, 
thirdly,  the  duty  of  erecting  and  maintaining  certain 
public  works  and  certain  public  institutions,  which  it 
can  never  be  for  the  interest  of  any  individual,  or  small 
number  of  individuals,  to  erect  or  maintain,  because  the 
profit  could  never  repay  the  expense  to  any  individual 
or  small  number  of  individuals,  though  it  may  fre- 
quently do  much  more  than  repay  it  to  a  great 
society."  ^ 

Such,  very  briefly  described,  is  individualism 
in  church,  state,  and  society.  It  has  not  fulfilled 
its  promises.  It  has  not  perfected  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  individual,  and  it  has  separated  the 
church  into  antagonistic  sects,  and  diverted  into 
intestine  quarrels  the  forces  which  should  have 
been  wholly  consecrated  to  a  united  campaign 
against  wickedness.  In  the  state  it  has  not  given 
the  individual  the  freedom  from  despotism  which 
it  promised    to   secure.     The  despotism  of  demo- 

^   Wealth  of  Nations,  book  iv,  ch.  ix.  p.  545,  Putnam's  ed. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIALISM.  Ill 

cracy  lias  proved  quite  as  perilous  to  liberty  as  the 
despotism  of  the  individual.  "  For  myself,"  says 
De  Tocqueville,^  "  when  I  feel  the  hand  of  power 
lie  heavy  on  my  brow,  I  care  but  little  to  know 
who  oppresses  me  ;  and  I  am  not  the  more  disposed 
to  pass  beneath  the  yoke  because  it  is  held  out  to 
me  by  the  arms  of  a  million  of  men."  If  the  reader 
is  curious  to  know  how  heavy  a  yoke  may  be 
framed  by  democracy,  and  by  it  imposed  on  the 
individual,  let  him  read  in  "  The  French  Revolu- 
tion "  2  Taine's  account  of  French  socialistic  legis- 
lation. In  society,  individualism  has  not  secured 
even  that  wealth  which  it  was  avowedly  the  sole 
object  of  the  old  school  of  political  economy  to 
secure  for  the  individual,  "  judged  solely  as  a 
beinof  who  desires  to  secure  wealth."  Free  com- 
petition  has  produced  a  concentration  of  wealth  in 
the  hands  of  the  few,  and  has  done  but  little  to 
remedy  the  impoverishment  of  the  many  ;  it  has 
limited  the  world's  market,  reduced  the  world's 
demand,  and  produced  what  is  absurdly  called 
"over-supply."  It  has  steadily  lessened,  and  in 
many  cases  finally  destroyed,  the  profits  of  even 
the  prosperous  and  wealthy,  and  so  created  a 
necessity  for  combinations  to  decrease  production 
and  thus  raise  prices.  Under  this  system  the 
"  submerged  tenth  "  in  London  has  remained  sub- 
merged ;    in  New  York  the   condition   is  little  if 

'  De  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America,  vol.  ii.  p.  13. 
2  Taine,  French  Eevolution,  book  vi.  ch.  i.  ;  book  viii.  ch.  ii.  vol. 
il. ;  pp.  52  f .  and  .3.56  f. 


112      CflRISTlANITY   AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

any  better.^  Pauperism  is  not  cured,  and  charity- 
struggles  in  vain  to  alleviate  social  conditions 
which  the  industrial  system  is  continually  produ- 
cing. "  This  general  well  and  cesspool,  once  baled 
and  clear,  to-day  will  begin  again  to  fill  itself 
anew.  The  universal  Stygian  quagmire  is  still 
there,  opulent  in  women  ready  to  be  ruined,  and 
in  men  ready.  Toward  the  same  sad  cesspool  will 
these  waste  currents  of  human  sin  ooze  and  gravi- 
tate as  heretofore.  Except  in  draining  the  uni- 
versal   quagmire     itself,    there    is    no    remedy."  ^ 

1  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  in  a  paper  published  in  The 
Christian  Union  (now  The  Outlook)  for  March  20,  1885,  says 
that,  during  the  three  years  preceding,  220,000  separate  indi- 
viduals received  helj)  through  public  charity  in  New  York  city, 
nearly  or  quite  one  fifth  of  the  entire  population,  and  she  adds: 
"There  is  no  room  for  duplication  of  cases  in  these  figures." 

2  Carlyle,  Latter  Bay  Pamphlets,  ed.  Chapman  and  Hall,  No.  1, 
p.  24.  The  student  will  find  the  social  evils  of  the  present  system 
stated  by  Kirkup  in  An  Inquiry  into  Socialism,  ch.  iii. ;  by  Gronlund 
in  Cooperative  Commonivealth,  ch.  ii. ;  and  by  Laveleye  in  Social- 
ism of  To-day,  Introduction.  More  judicial  statements  of  the 
effects  on  the  individual  will  be  found  in  Francis  A.  Walker's 
The  Wages  Question,  pp.  201,  359,  from  which  the  following  may 
be  cited  as  a  single  illustration  :  "  We  know  that  mill-owners  are 
harassed  with  applications  from  their  hands  to  take  children 
into  employment  on  almost  any  ternis,  and  that  the  consciences  of 
employers  have  required  to  be  reinforced  by  the  sternest  prohi- 
bitions and  penalties  of  the  law  to  save  children  ten,  seven,  or 
four  years  old  from  the  horrors  of  '  sweating  dens '  and  crowded 
factories,  since  the  more  miserable  the  parents'  condition  the 
greater  becomes  the  pressure  on  them  to  crowd  their  children 
somehow,  somewhere,  into  service  ;  the  scantier  the  remuneration 
of  their  present  employment,  the  less  becomes  their  ability  to 
secure  promising  openings,  or  to  obtain  favor  from  outside  for  the 
better  disposition   of    their   offspring.  .   .  .  What   is   the    single 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  113 

Such  is  the  testimony  not  of  Herr  Most,  nor  of 
Justus  Schwab,  not  of  Elisce  Rechis  nor  of  Prince 
Krapotkin,  but  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  since  his 
time  the  quagmire  has  been  drained  only  by  trans- 
porting- part  of  it  from  London  and  distributing  it 
in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  St. 
Louis,  and  Chicago. 

Man  cannot  be  regarded  by  the  Christian,  by 
the  philanthropist,  nor  even  by  the  truly  scientific 
observer,  "  solely  as  a  being  who  desires  to  pos- 
sess wealth."  If  he  is  looked  upon  as  a  man  with 
moral  sentiments,  noble  ideals,  personal  affections, 
the  social  evils  of  the  system  of  a  free  competition 
between  men  selfishly  struggling  in  a  remorseless 
competition  with  one  another  are  even  greater 
than  the  industrial  and  economic  evils.  John 
Stuart  Mill  thus  portrays  them ;  and,  though  in 
this  passage  he  is  acting  simply  as  a  reporter  of 
the  Socialistic  indictment  of  modern  society,  it  is 

laborer  in  a  cotton-mill  ?  "What  does  his  will  or  his  wish  stand 
for  ?  The  mill  itself  becomes  one  vast  machine,  which  rolls  on  in 
its  appointed  work,  tearing-,  crushing-,  or  grinding-  its  human  just 
as  relentlessly  as  it  does  its  other  material.  The  force  of  disci- 
pline completely  subjects  the  interests  and  the  objects  of  the 
individual  to  the  necessities  of  a  great  establishment.  Whoever 
fails  to  keep  up,  or  faints  by  the  way,  is  relentlessly  thrown  out. 
If  the  wheel  runs  for  twelve  hours  in  the  day,  every  operative 
must  be  in  his  place  from  the  first  to  the  last  revolution.  If  it 
runs  for  thirteen  hours  or  fourteen,  he  must  still  be  at  his  post. 
Personality  disappears ;  even  the  instinct  of  self-assertion  is  lost ; 
apathy  soon  succeeds  to  ambition  and  hopefulness.  The  laborer 
can  quarrel  no  more  with  the  foul  air  of  his  unventilated  factory, 
burdened  with  poisons,  than  he  can  quarrel  with  the  great  wheel 
that  turns  below." 


114      CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

not  possible   to   doubt  that  in   the   main   he  is   a 
sympathetic  reporter :  — 

"  Morally  considered,  its  evils  are  obvious.  It  is  the 
parent  of  envy,  hatred,  and  uncharitableness ;  it  makes 
every  one  the  natural  enemy  of  all  others  who  cross  his 
path,  and  every  one's  path  is  liable  to  be  crossed. 
Under  the  present  system,  hardly  any  one  can  gain 
except  by  the  loss  or  disappointment  of  one  or  many 
others.  In  a  well-constituted  community,  every  one 
would  be  a  gainer  by  every  other  person's  successful 
exertions,  while  now  we  gain  by  each  other's  loss,  and 
lose  by  each  other's  gain ;  and  our  greatest  gains  come 
from  the  worst  source  of  all,  from  death,  —  the  death  of 
those  who  are  nearest  and  should  be  dearest  to  us."  ^ 

In  religion,  there  is  an  evident  reaction  against 
the  individualism  of  the  past.  We  believe  in 
religious  liberty,  as  Luther  did ;  but  we  no  longer 
think  that  *'  liberty  "  is  the  only  word,  and  we  are 

1  J.  S.  Mill,  "  Chapters  on  Socialism,"  Fortnightly  Review, 
vol.  xxxi.  p.  227 ;  also  in  Literary  Magazine,  March  and  April, 
1879,  p.  267.  His  own  view  he  has  expressed  clearly  in  his  Prin- 
ciples of  Political  Economy^  bk.  iv.  ch.  vi.  §  2 :  "I  cannot,  there- 
fore, regard  the  stationary  state  of  capital  and  wealth  with  the 
unaffected  aversion  so  generally  manifested  towards  it  by  politi- 
cal economists  of  the  old  school.  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  would 
be,  on  the  whole,  a  very  considerable  improvement  on  our  present 
condition.  I  confess  I  am  not  charmed  with  the  ideal  of  life  held 
out  by  those  who  think  that  the  normal  state  of  human  beings  is 
that  of  struggling  to  get  on ;  that  the  trampling,  crushing,  elbow- 
ing, and  treading  on  each  other's  heels,  which  form  the  existing 
type  of  social  life,  are  the  most  desirable  lot  of  human  kind,  or 
anything  but  the  disagreeable  symptoms  of  one  of  the  phases  of 
industrial  progress." 


CHRISTIANITY   AXIJ    SOCIALISM.  115 

striving  in  religion  to  bring  about  fraternity  as 
well.  The  Pope  sends  a  message  to  the  English 
people  to  return  to  their  loyalty  to  him.  The  Eng- 
lish Church  is  studying  the  question  how  it  may 
bring  about  the  union  of  the  Greek,  the  Roman, 
the  Anglican,  and  the  Protestant  churches  in  one 
great  organization.  The  Congregationalists  are 
proposing  a  simpler  creed,  and  a  greater  liberty 
of  interpretation,  that  the  churches  may  work 
together  in  one  confederation,  if  they  cannot  unite 
in  one  great  organization.  We  are  forming  orga- 
nizations like  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations, 
the  Kino^'s  Dauo^hters,  the  Societies  of  Christian 
Endeavor.  The  movement  of  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  a  movement  to  add  fraternity  to  liberty  in 
the  realm  of  religion. 

And  the  movement  may  be  just  as  clearly 
traced  in  government.  Democracy  no  longer  be- 
lieves in  what  has  been  well  called  the  night- 
watchman  theory.  It  rejects  the  aphorism  that 
the  sole  function  of  government  is  to  govern ; 
that  its  sole  duty  is  to  protect  one  community 
against  another  community,  or  one  individual 
against  another  individual.  B}^  government  we 
])rotect  and  promote  manufactures.  By  govern- 
ment we  aid  with  subsidies  railroads  and  canals 
and  various  public  enterprises.  By  government 
we  carry  all  the  mails.  By  government  we  edu- 
cate the  children  of  the  commonwealth  in  all  the 
elements  that    are    necessary    to    citizenship,   and 


116      CHE  1ST  1  AX  IT  Y   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

in  many  of  the  States  maintain  universities  of 
the  higher  grades.  By  government  we  establish 
parks  for  public  playgrounds,  and  maintain  music 
in  the  parks  for  public  recreation.  By  govern- 
ment we  supply  our  houses  with  water  and  with 
light,  and  are  beginning  to  provide  our  cities 
with  transportation.  By  government  we  deter- 
mine what  are  reasonable  prices  for  transporta- 
tion on  our  great  railroads.  Government  has 
run  far  beyond  any  bounds  that  Thomas  Jefferson 
would  have  recognized  as  legitimate.  Across  the 
sea  the  same  tendency  is  still  more  apparent.  In 
Great  Britain  government  takes  care  of  the  sav- 
ings of  the  poor,  regulates  the  rate  of  rent  between 
landlord  and  tenant,  erects  buildings  and  rents 
them  to  the  poor,  regulates  by  law  the  conditions 
and  hours  of  labor.  In  Germany  government 
provides  for  the  workingman  ^  insurance  against 
sickness,  death,  and  old  age.  In  Switzerland 
government  manages  express  business  ;2  in  Aus- 
tralia it  owns   and  operates   the  railroads.^     And 

^  "Compulsory  Insurance  in  Germany,"  J.  G.  Brooks,  Fourth 
Special  Report  of  United  States  Com.  of  Labor. 

^  "State  and  Federal  Government  in  Switzerland,"  J.  M. 
Vincent,  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  1891,  p.  85.  See, 
also,  The  Model  Republic,  F.  G.  Baker,  p.  519;  "Switzerland 
the  Model  Democracy,"  S.  N.  M.  Byers,  in  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  xxviii.  p.  47.  "  The  telegraph  is  in  universal  use  in 
the  country,  owing  to  i\\e  low  rates.  Ten  cents  will  pay  for 
eight  words  to  any  point  in  the  country,  yet  the  government 
secures  a  profit  of  $40,000  a  year." 

3  Sir  Charles  W.  Dilke,  Problems  of  Greater  Britain,  1890, 
p.  508. 


CHRIST /AX/TV    AXJJ    SOCIALISM.  117 

these  are  only  a  part  of  the  functions  on  which 
government  is  entering.  ^ 

While  practical  experience  has  refuted  the 
night-watchman  theory  of  government,  historical 
study  has  refuted  the  notion  of  a  social  contract, 
on  which  that  theory  was  based.  There  never  was 
an  ideal  state  of  nature.  "This  political  specu- 
lation," says  Sir  Henry  Maine,  "of  which  the 
remote  and  indirect  consequences  press  us  on  all 
sides,  is,  of  all  speculations,  the  most  baseless. 
The  natural  condition  from  which  it  starts  is  a 
simple  figment  of  the  imagination.  So  far  as 
any  research  into  the  nature  of  primitive  human 
society  has  any  bearing  on  so  mere  a  dream,  all 
inquiry  has  dissipated  it.  The  process  by  which 
Rousseau  supposes  communities  of  men  to  have 
been  formed,  or  by  which  at  all  events  he  wishes 
us  to  assume  that  they  were  formed,  is,  again, 
a  chimera.  No  general  assertion  as  to  the  way 
in  which  human  societies  grew  up  is  safe,  but 
perhaps  the  safest  of  all  is  that  none  of  them 
were  formed  in  the  way  imagined  by  Rousseau."  ^ 

The  patriarchal  history  in  the  Book  of  Genesis 
will  give  the  reader  the  most  accessible  and  proba- 
bly the  best  historical  account  of  the  growth  of 
government.     It  began  in  the  family.    This  family, 

1  See  W.  E.  H.  Leeky,  Democracy  and  Liberty,  ch.  iii. ;  and  Rt. 
Hon.  G.  J.  Gosclien,  Laissez-faire  or  Governmental  Interference. 

2  Sir  Henry  Maine,  Popular  Government,  p.  159.  Compare 
R.  E.  Thomijson,  Be  Civitate  Dei,  p.  87  :  "  Aristotle  contradicts 
the  theory  of  the  Social  Contract  before  its  origination  by 
Epicurus." 


118      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

as  in  the  case  of  Abraham,  became  a  commercial,  a 
worshiping,  and  a  military  organization.  It  was 
state,  church,  and  army  all  in  one.  The  abso- 
lute power  was  lodged  in  the  father.  The  priestly 
functions  were  exercised  by  him.  Sometimes  for 
defensive  purposes,  sometimes  for  aggressive  pur- 
poses, sometimes  for  no  definite  purpose,  but  by 
the  simple  power  of  kinship,  a  number  of  families 
coalesced  in  a  tribe.  The  tribe  retained,  however, 
the  family  character.  The  chief  was  the  com- 
mander of  the  army,  the  priest  of  the  church. 
His  authority  was  indeed  derived  from  the  mem- 
bers of  the  tribe,  not,  however,  by  a  social  contract, 
but  by  a  tacit  consent.^ 

Thus  government  is  seen  to  be,  not  a  mere  hu- 
man organization,  dependent  on  a  contract  or  a 
constitution  framed  for  it,  but  a  divine  order. 
God,  who  has  set  men  in  families,  has  ordered 
that  out  of  the  family  shall  grow  the  larger  com- 
munity into  which  men  are  born  as  they  are  born 
into  the  household.  Thus,  too,  liberty  is  seen  to 
be  not  merely  independence.  In  truth,  indej^end- 
ence  does  not  exist.  The  child  is  dependent  on 
the  parent,  the  youth  on  his  schoolmates,  the  man 
on  his  contemporaries,  each  age  on  the  preceding 

^  "  Doubtless,  from  the  beginning',  the  power  of  the  chief  is  in 
part  personal ;  his  greater  strength,  courage,  or  cunning  enables 
him  in  some  degree  to  enforce  his  individual  will.  But,  as  the 
evidence  shows,  his  individual  will  is  but  a  small  factor,  and  the 
authority  he  wields  is  proportionate  to  the  degree  in  which  he 
expresses  the  will  of  the  rest."  Herbert  Spencer,  Political  Insti- 
tutions, §  466,  p.  321. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  119 

age,  every  family  on  other  families,  every  commu- 
nity on  other  communities.  Liberty  is  possible 
only  through  society,  and  society  is  a  condition  of 
interdependence.  And  the  develoj)ment  of  free- 
dom is  at  once  a  progress  of  dependence  and  of 
liberty  of  action  in  such  dependence.  "  When," 
says  Professor  Green, ^  "  we  measure  the  progress 
of  a  society  by  its  growth  in  freedom,  we  measure 
it  by  the  increasing  development  and  exercise,  on 
the  whole,  of  those  powers  of  contributing  to  social 
good  with  which  we  believe  the  members  of  the 
society  to  be  endowed,  —  in  short,  by  the  greater 
power,  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  as  a  body,  to 
make  the  most  and  best  of  themselves.  Freedom, 
in  all  the  forms  of  doing  what  one  will  with  one's 
own,  is  valuable  only  as  a  means  to  an  end.  That 
end  is  what  I  call  freedom  in  the  positive  sense ; 
in  other  words,  the  liberation  of  the  powers  of  all 
men,  equally,  for  contributions  to  the  common 
good." 

Three  stasres  in  the  evolution  of  g'overnment  are 
^        .         .  .  . 

easily  traceable  in  history,  —  paternalism,  inde- 
pendence, fraternalism.  In  the  first,  one  man,  or 
a  class  of  men,  is  intrusted  with  the  duty  of  caring 
for  the  commonwealth,  much  as  a  father  cares  for 
his  household.  In  the  second,  government  is  re- 
duced to  a  minimum  ;  no  more  authority  is  con- 
ceded to  the  governing  body  than  is  necessary  for 
the  protection  of  the  individual.     In  the  third,  the 

^  T.  H.  Green,  Lecture  on  Liberal  Legislation  and  Freedom 
of  Contract,  Works,  vol.  iii.  pp.  371,  372. 


120      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

individuals  combine  and  cooperate  to  do  for  their 
common  welfare  all  those  things  which  can  better 
be  done  by  cooperative  and  combined  action  than 
by  individual  enterprise.  On  this  third  stage 
democracy  is  now  unmistakably  entering.^ 

The  same  reaction  which  has  produced  a  move- 
ment toward  fraternity  in  religion  and  toward  fra- 
ternity in  politics  is  producing,  and  has  produced, 
a  movement  toward  fraternity  in  industry.  We 
have  definitely  abandoned  Jaissez-faire  and  the 
Manchester  School.^  It  has  no  longer  any  place 
in  our  industrial  conceptions.  It  is  sometiaies  at- 
tacked by  men  as  though  it  were  an  existing  thing. 
It  is  not  an  existing  thing.  In  1802  the  first  fac- 
tory legislation  was  introduced  in  England,  —  "the 
greatest  invention  in  the  science  of  government  in 
modern  times,"  says  the  Duke  of  Argyle.  This 
factory  legislation  undertook  to  regulate  the  rela- 
tions between  employer  and  employed,  and  from 
that  year  it  has  gone  steadily  on  in  England  and 
in  this  country.  The  employment  of  children  un- 
der a  certain  age  is  proliibited ;  the  employment 
of  children  in  certain  vocations  is  prohibited  ;  the 
employment  of  women  in  certain  vocations  and  cer- 
tain hours  is  prohibited  ;  sanitary  conditions  are 
required  by  law  for  the  house  and  the  factory. 
Government  has  definitely,  distinctly,  and  finally 

1  See  Harwooci,  The  Coming  Democracy,  p.  306  f. 

2  See,  for  moral  grounds  of  this  abandonment,  Martensen's 
Ethics,  vol.  ii.  p.  i:58  ff. ;  Huxley's  Evolution  and  Ethics,  p.  81  ff.  ; 
Kidd's  Social  Evolution  throughout ;  and  John  Stuart  Mill  as 
quoted  above. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  121 

declared  that  the  relations  between  men  in  indus- 
try cannot  be  left  to  the  conflict  of  self-interest. 
There  must  be,  in  some  measure,  government  con- 
trol exercised  over  them.^  From  that  declaration 
we  shall  never,  in  any  Anglo-Saxon  community,  go 
back  to  the  old  pagan  individualism. 

While  we  have  thus  been  exercising  govern- 
mental supervision  over  industrial  relations,  we 
have  been  creating  industrial  organizations  for  the 
better  production  of  wealth.  It  is  popular  in  cer- 
tain quarters  to  denounce  corporations.  Some 
corporations  have  acted  in  such  a  way  that  they 
deserve  denunciation  ;  so  have  some  individuals. 
But  the  corporation  is  a  modern  contrivance  in  the 
interest  of  fellowship.  It  is  a  contrivance  by  which 
many  men  can  combine  their  brains  and  their  purses 
in  a  common  enterprise.  On  the  other  hand,  labor 
also  has  framed  its  organizations.  It  is  customary 
in  certain  quarters  to  denounce  trade  unions.  And 
I  must  frankly  confess  that  it  sometimes  requires 
all  my  faith  in  the  principle  of  the  right  of  men 
to  associate  themselves  together  for  common  ends, 
to  defend  trade  unions,  when  I  see  some  of  the 
things  which  they  have  done  and  are  doing  in  the 
name  of  labor  every  day.  But  I  remember  his- 
tory ;  I  know  how  in  England  the  trade  unions 
have  passed  through  the  barbaric  stage  of  organi- 
zations  for  labor  war  into   the    present    stage   of 

1  The  best  summary  I  have  found  of  this  movement,  and  the 
ablest  argument  and  protest  against  it,  is  in  -4  Plea  for  Liberty, 
with  Introduction  by  Herbert  Spencer.     D.  Appletou  &  Co. 


122      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

organizations  which,  on  the  whole,  are  peaceful 
and  make  for  peace. ^  It  is  reasonable  to  believe 
that  our  own  country,  following  the  example  of 
our  most  advanced  neighbor,  may  also  learn  to  lay 
aside  the  war  spirit,  and  that  the  trade  unions  of 
to-day  will  become  in  the  future  not  only  peace- 
able but  peace-makers.  Where  labor  is  organized, 
there  it  is  best  paid,  there  it  is  best  educated, 
there,  for  the  most  part,  it  does  its  work  best.  The 
progress  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  larger  education  and  better  organization 
both  of  caj)ital  and  labor.  The  days  of  pure  indi- 
vidualism are  over. 

Moreover,  we  have  incipient  organizations  of 
capital  and  labor  combining  together  for  a  com- 
mon end.  We  have  them  in  j^rofit-sharing,  in 
cooperation,  in  schemes  of  arbitration,  sometimes 
successful,  sometimes  failures,  but  always  with  a 
better  spirit  of  brotherhood  beneath  them  and  in 
them  than  in  that  old  spirit  of  antagonistic  selfish- 
ness which  gives  the  reward  only  to  the  strong  and 
death  to  the  weak.^ 

Socialism,  then,  —  though  I  do  not  define  it,  — 

1  See,  throughout,  Sidney  and  Beatrice  Webb's  History  of 
Trades-  Unionism. 

^  To  these  considerations  should  be  added,  in  any  comprehen- 
sive survey  of  the  age,  a  consideration  of  the  growth  of  organi- 
zations for  philanthropic  or  guasi-philanthropic  purposes,  but 
wholly  voluntary.  The  following  note  is  condensed  from  an  arti- 
cle by  Prince  Krapotkin  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  August, 
1887 ;  it  is  far  from  complete ;  indeed,  it  is  little  more  than  a 
suggestion  of  a  class  whose  number  is  legion  :  — 

"  The  Dutch  Bunden,  extending  now  their  organizations  over 


CHRISTIANITY   AXD    SOCIALISM.  123 

I  take  to  be  a  reaction  against  the  excessive  indi- 
vidualism of  the  past.i  It  exists  in  widely  different 
forms.     It  includes   the   Christian   Socialist,   who 

the  rivers  of  Germany,  and  even  to  the  shipping  trade  of  the 
Baltic. 

"  The  sindicats  of  France. 

"  The  Lifeboat  Association,  which  has  saved  no  less  than  32,000 
lives. 

•'  The  Hospitals  Association,  and  hundreds  of  like  organiz^a- 
tions. 

"  Societies  for  all  possible  kinds  of  studies  ;  for  gymnastics,  for 
shorthand-writing,  for  the  study  of  a  separate  author,  for  games 
and  all  kinds  of  sports. 

"  Societies  which  encroach  on  what  was  formerly  the  domain 
of  the  state  or  the  municipality. 

"  Free  federation  of  independent  communes,  for  temporary  or 
permanent  purposes,  lies  at  the  very  bottom  of  Swiss  life,  and  to 
these  federations  many  a  part  of  Switzerland  is  indebted  for  its 
roads  and  fountains,  its  rich  vineyards,  well-kept  forests,  and 
meadows,  which  the  foreigner  admires.  And  besides  these  small 
societies,  substituting  themselves  for  the  state  within  some  lim- 
ited sphere,  do  we  not  see  other  societies  doing  the  same  on  a 
much  larger  scale  ? 

"  An  army  of  volunteers,  which  surely  might  stand  against  any 
army  of  slaves  obeying  a  military  despot. 

"  The  Red  Cross  Society." 

1  "  We  have  been  afflicted  by  an  exaggeration  of  individualism, 
and  the  next  century  will  show  that  human  society  is  greater  and 
nobler  than  all  that  which  is  merely  individual.  This  doctrine, 
which  has  its  foundation  in  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  Christianity, 
is  accused  of  Socialism  by  the  frivolous  and  impetuous,  as  well  as 
by  the  capitalists  and  the  rich.  But  the  future  will  call  forth 
into  the  light  of  reason  the  social  state  of  the  world  of  labor.  We 
shall  then  see  on  what  laws  the  Christian  society  of  humanity 
rests."  Cardinal  Manning,  quoted  in  Nitti's  "  Catholic  Socialism," 
pp.  315,  316. 

"Socialism  differs  from  individualism  both  in  method  and  in 
aim.     The   method   of  socialism  is  cooperative ;  the  method  of 


124      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

believes  that  Christianity  is  a  social  religion,  and 
that  the  principles  and  j^recepts  of  Jesus  Christ, 
carried  out  in  social  organizations,  will  revolu- 
tionize the  present  social  order,  as  it  has  revo- 
lutionized social  order  in  the  past ;  the  "  Socialist 
of  the  Chair,"  so  called,  —  that  is,  the  scientific 
Socialist,  —  who  believes  that  the  political  eco- 
nomy of  the  past  has  been  unscientific,  because 
not  inductive,  and  who  desires  by  a  careful  investi- 
gation of  social  phenomena  to  form  a  basis  for  a 
new  social  science ;  and  the  state  Socialist,  ^vho 
believes  that  the  state  should  own  all  the  imple- 
ments of  industry,  and  control  and  direct  all  indus- 
trial functions  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  community 
should  be  the  sole  capitalist,  and  all  men  should  be 
laborers  in  its  employ.  The  first  form  of  social- 
ism may  be  described  as  a  religious  sentiment,  the 
second  as  a  philosophical  method,  the  third  as  a 
politico-social  doctrine. 

Socialism  and  Christianity,  then,  agree  in  two 
fundamental  respects.     They   both  aim   to  secure 

individualism  is  competitive.  The  one  reg-ards  man  as  working- 
with  man  for  a  common  end ;  the  other  reg-ards  man  as  working- 
against  man  for  private  g-ain.  The  aim  of  socialism  is  the  fulfill- 
ment of  service  ;  the  aim  of  individualism  is  the  attainment  of 
some  personal  advantage,  riches,  place,  or  fame.  Socialism 
seeks  such  an  organization  of  life  as  shall  secure  for  every  one 
the  most  complete  development  of  his  powers ;  individualism 
seeks  primarily  the  satisfaction  of  the  particular  wants  of  each 
one,  in  the  hope  that  the  pursuit  of  private  interest  will  in  the 
end  secure  public  welfare."  Bishop  Brooke  Foss  Westcott, 
Address  on  Socialism  at  Church  Congress  at  Hull,  1890,  Incarna- 
tion and  Common  Life,  p.  226. 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIALISM.  125 

the  reorganization  of  society,  and  such  a  reorga- 
nization of  society  as  shall  give  a  greater  diffusion 
of  virtue,  intelligence,  and  power.  In  these  two 
respects  they  are  allied ;  both  ai:e^  social  and  both 
are  democratic  in  their  purpose.  But  they  differ  in 
very  important  respects  vitally  affecting  both  their 
method  and  their  spirit.  Broadly  speaking,  Social- 
ism puts  environment  first  and  character  second ; 
Christianity  puts  character  first  and  environment 
second.  (It  is  not  true  that  intelligent  Socialism 
disregards  private  character;  nor  is  it  true  that 
intelligent  Christianity  —  the  Christianity  wdiich 
follows  the  teaching  of  the  Master  —  disregards 
social  conditions.  But  it  is  true  that  the  social 
reformer  puts  the  emphasis  on  the  condition ; 
the  Christian  disciple  puts  the  emphasis  on  the 
individual  character. 

1.  Socialism  is  founded  on  the  principle  that 
happiness  depends  primarily  upon  circumstances. 
Like  Christianity,  it  endeavors  to  make  men  hap- 
pier ;  but  it  endeavors  to  do  tl^is  chiefly  by  improv- 
ing their  environment,  —  by  giving  them  cleaner 
streets,  better  homes,  greater  wealth,  larger  mea- 
sure of  the  comforts  which  wealth  brings.  It 
offers  itself  chiefly  as  a  cure  for  poverty,  —  that 
is,  to  improve  a  condition,  not  to  change  the  nature, 
of  man.  Christianity  is  founded  upon  the  belief 
that  happiness  depends  primarily  upon  character, 
that  a  good  man  in  evil  conditions  will  be  happy, 
aud  that  a  bad  man  in  good  conditions  will  be 
miserable.     Jesus  Christ  has  expressed  this  faith 


126      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

very  clearly  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount.  Blessedness,  he  says  in  effect, 
is  dependent,  not  upon  what  the  individual  pos- 
sesses, but  upon  what  the  individual  is,  and  each 
quality  in  character  has  its  own  blessedness.  They 
that  mourn  are  blessed,  because  by  their  sorrow 
they  are  made  strong.  The  meek  are  blessed,  for 
they,  not  the  grasping,  enjoy  the  earth.  They  who 
hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  are  blessed, 
for  this  is  a  craving  which  is  certain  to  be  satisfied. 
The  pure  in  heart  are  blessed,  for  they  shall  enjoy 
the  visibn  of  the  higher  things,  especially  of  God, 
denied  to  those  who  indulge  their  imagination  in 
sensual  images.  Teaching  this  by  his  words, 
Christ  taught  it  even  more  clearly  by  his  life. 
He  absolutely  disregarded  the  conditions  which 
men  are  accustomed  to  think  essential  to  happi- 
ness ;  was  untroubled  by  his  poverty ;  cared  not 
that  he  had  no  place  in  which  to  lay  his  head ; 
depended  on  the  hospitality  of  the  community  for 
his  earthly  subsistence  ;  sought,  day  by  day,  his 
bread  from  his  heavenly  Father,  and  impliedly 
taught  his  followers  that  they  might  do  the  same. 
And  yet,  going  through  such  a  life  of  poverty, 
accompanied  with  public  contumely,  a  social  out- 
cast from  the  higher  intellectual  circles  of  his 
time,  and  under  the  shadow  of  oncoming  death, 
he  left,  as  his  highest  legacy  to  his  followers,  this 
bequest :  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  to  you 
that  my  joy  might  remain  in  you,  and  that  your 
joy  might  be  full." 


CHRiST/Ay/rr  and  socialism.  127 

There  has  recently  been  circulated  In  certain 
English  and  American  papers  the  pathetic  story 
of  the  "  Happiest  Man  in  London."  This  man 
and  his  wife  were  found  living  in  a  single  room 
with  nothing  but  the  most  necessary  furniture. 
"  For  twenty-five  years  the  wife  had  been  para- 
lyzed, and  her  husband  had  been  her  nurse,  her 
protector,  her  support,  and,  most  of  all,  her  lover 
all  the  time.  She  could  scarcely  speak,  and  her 
only  strength  of  expression  lay  in  her  eyes,  looking 
'  straight  out,  clear  and  shining.'  In  response  to 
a  new  doctor's  question,  this  hero  of  a  man  told  in 
the  simplest  and  most  sincere  way  how  he  lived. 
'  I  get  up  early  of  a  morning,  you  see,  sir,'  said 
Temple,  '  and  make  our  breakfast  and  attend  to 
her.  Tlien,  before  I  start  for  work,  —  I  'm  in  an 
engineer's  employ,  —  I  just  boards  her  up  in  bed 
so  as  she  can't  fall  out.  I  'm  back  at  dinner  hour, 
and  we  have  it  together.  Then,  when  I  leave 
work,  my  evenin'  soon  passes.  There  's  usually  a 
bit  of  cooking  to  be  done,  and  washing  up,  and  the 
room  to  be  seen  to.  An  invalid  must  have  things 
clean  about  her ;  it  is  n't  agreeable  to  just  lie  and 
look  at  anything  dirty.  I  like  Lucy  to  keep 
bright,  —  but,  there !  she  always  is  ;  and  if  occa- 
sionally she  gets  down,  I  soon  cheer  her  up :  don't 
I,  Lucy  ?  I  said  I  'd  love  her,  comfort  her,  honor 
and  kee^^  her,  in  sickness  and  in  health.  I  've 
tried,  and  we  've  been  happy.  Sir,  love  does  it 
all.  You  '11  want  to  comfort  her,  you  '11  have  to 
honor  her,  and  if  sickness  come  you  '11  love  her  all 


128      CHRISTJAXJTY    AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  more.'  From  the  bed  there  came  a  strange 
sound.  It  was  something  between  a  laugh  and 
a  sob.  And  the  doctor,  turning,  looked  away 
asrain.     Her  husband's  words  had  moved  the  wife 

o 

to  tears,  but  her  face  was  radiant  with  the  joy  in 
her  upturned  eyes.  Temple  laid  his  hand  on 
hers,  —  hers  which  could  give  no  answering  pres- 
sure. '  Sir,'  he  said,  '  I  can't  wish  you  better 
happiness  than  I've  had.  I  wish  you  as  much. 
And  I  take  it  I'm  about  the  hapi3iest  man  in 
London.'  "  1 

I  quote  this  simple  story  here  as  the  best  pos- 
sible way  of  illustrating  the  Christian's  faith  that 
happiness  depends  on  character,  not  on  condition. 

2.  Socialism  is  founded  on  the  faith  that  man's 
moral  character  depends  primarily  on  his  condi- 
tion ;  Christianity,  on  the  faith  that  man's  condi- 
tion depends  primarily  on  his  moral  character. 
Unquestionably,  character  and  condition  act  and 
react  on  each  other.  Unquestionably,  both  So- 
cialism and  Christianity  recognize  this  law.  But 
not  less  certain  is  it  that,  in  so  far  as  Socialism 
endeavors  to  mould  the  character  at  all,  it  does 
so  by  change  in  the  environment ;  and  that  Chris- 
tianity, in  so  far  as  it  endeavors  to  change  en- 
vironment, does  so  chiefly  through  direct  action 
upon  the  character.  All  the  higher  forms  of 
Socialism  seek  not  merely  to  change  man's  con- 
dition, not  merely  to  make  him  happier,  but 
also    to   make    him    a    better    man.      But    it   pro- 

^  Condensed  frona  the  Ladies^  Home  Journal,  February,  1895. 


CHRISTIANJTY   AND    SOCIALISM.  129 

ceeds  in  all  its  forms  on  the  general  assump- 
tion that,  if  the  social  organism  is  made  right, 
the  moral  condition  of  man  will  be  made  right 
in  consequence.  In  its  extreme  forms,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  it  affirms  the  natural  good- 
ness of  man,  and  traces  all  the  evils  in  him,  as 
well  as  those  which  environ  him,  to  a  vicious 
social  order.  Said  Adolph  Wagner  to  an  enthu- 
siastic Socialist,  "  Your  scheme  would  work  well 
if  men  were  to  become  angels."  "  Why  should 
they  not  become  angels  ? "  rej^lied  the  Socialist. 
"  It  is  enough  to  do  away  with  the  present  eco- 
nomic injustice,  and  all  men  will  become  angels."  ^ 
It  is  not,  however,  the  Socialist  alone  who  enter- 
tains this  opinion.  There  are  as  many  different 
sects  in  what  we  call  socialistic  philanthropy  as 
there  are  in  the  Christian  church ;  or,  if  not  as 
many,  at  least  as  antagonistic  to  each  other.  They 
do  not  agree  in  the  social  reforms  which  they  pro- 
pose, but  they  all  agree  in  the  opinion  that,  if  the 
necessary  social  reform  were  carried  into  effect, 
the  moral  reform  of  humanity  would  follow.  One 
social  reformer  tells  us  that  we  must  abolish  the 
tariff,  and  then  prices  will  be  lowered  and  wealth 
will  be  distributed ;  another  tells  us  that  we  must 
raise  the  tariff,  and  then  wages  will  be  increased 
and  wealth  will  be  distributed.  One  social  re- 
former tells  us  we  must  levy  all  taxes  on  the  land, 
and  take  them  off  everything  else ;  another  tells 
us  we  must  take  them  off  the  land  and  levy  them 
1  Quoted  by  F.  S.  Nitti  in  Catholic  Socialism,  p.  22. 


130      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

on  incomes.  One  social  reformer  tells  us  we  must 
increase  the  power,  and  extend  the  functions,  of 
government;  another,  that  government  is  a  failure, 
or,  at  best,  a  necessary  evil,  and  that  we  must 
reduce  its  powers,  or  abolish  it  altogether.  But 
the  high-tariff  man  and  the  free-trader,  the  land- 
tax  and  the  income-tax  advocate,  the  state  So- 
cialist and  the  Anarchist,  widely  as  they  differ, 
all  agree  in  this  one  fundamental  doctrine,  that, 
if  we  can  only  make  the  social  organism  right, 
humanity  will  be  well  taken  care  of.  They  strike 
at  the  vice  in  the  organism  ;  demand  reform  in  the 
organism;  seek  changes  that  can  be  wrought  by 
leg-islation  in  the  oroanism. 

Christ  proceeded  on  the  directly  opposite  as- 
sumption. He  made  almost  no  attempt  to  change 
the  social  order  or  the  social  organism.  The 
system  of  taxation  which  prevailed  in  the  Ro- 
man Empire  was  abominably  unjust.  Christ 
said  never  a  word  about  taxation.  Labor  was 
not  only  underpaid  and  ill-paid,  but,  for  the  most 
part,  worked  with  its  hands  in  manacles ;  but 
Christ  said  never  a  word  about  slavery.  If  drink- 
inof  and  drunkenness  were  not  as  bad  in  their 
forms  then  as  they  are  now,  by  reason  of  the 
modern  use  of  distilled  liquors,  then  compara- 
tively unknown,  drinking  habits  and  animalism, 
in  all  its  forms,  were  worse  in  Greece  than  they 
have  ever  been  in  America;  but  Christ  never 
leveled  his  shafts  against  the  liquor  trade,  or 
the  making  of  wine.     Pharisaism  had  the  prestige 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  131 

of  a  great  hierarchical  system.  Christ  did  not 
strike  at  the  hierarchy  and  the  system  ;  he  struck 
at  the  Pharisee,  not  at  the  ism.  He  struck  at 
the  injustice,  not  at  the  form  which  the  injustice 
took  at  a  particular  era,  in  a  particular  coun- 
try, under  particular  circumstances.  He  sought 
to  change,  not  methods,  but  men.  He  struck, 
not  at  the  outward  clothing  of  the  wrong,  but 
at  the  wrong  itself.  Accordingly,  he  said  al- 
most nothing  about  social  evils,  and  a  great  deal 
about  individual  sins.  In  strictness  of  speech, 
a  nation  does  not  sin.  The  individuals  who  make 
up  the  nation  are  the  sinners.  Sins  are  indi- 
vidual, and  Christ  proceeded  on  the  assumption 
that,  if  we  can  get  rid  of  sin  in  the  individual,  we 
shall  get  rid  of  evil  in  the  state ;  but  if  we  leave 
the  sin  in  the  individual,  all  social  reform  will 
result  only  in  a  change  in  the  form  of  social  evil. 

Christ's  method  of  dealing  with  social  injustice 
is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery.  Leaving  the  slave  in  bondage 
and  the  master  in  power,  Christianity  delivered 
to  them  both  its  twofold  message.  To  the  master 
it  said.  Give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just 
and  equal,  forbearing  threatening,  knowing  that 
your  Master,  also,  is  in  heaven,  neither  is  there 
respect  of  persons  with  Him.^  To  the  slave  it 
said,  Art  thou  called,  being  a  servant?  care  not 
for  it;  with  goodwill  do  your  service,  not  with 
eye-service  as  men-pleasers,  but  in  singleness  of 
1  Eph.  vi.  9 ;  Col.  iv.  1. 


132      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

heart,  as  unto  Christ.^  It  thus  dignified  the  slave 
and  honored  his  toil.  Under  this  teaching,  slaves 
did  not  count  themselves  disgraced  because  they 
were  slaves,  nor  degraded  either  by  the  toil  put 
upon  them,  or  by  the  unjust  punishments  often 
inflicted  upon  them.  Under  this  teaching,  the 
masters  came  to  look  upon  their  slaves  as  their 
brethren,  to  whom  they  owed  far  more  than  the 
law  required  of  them,  far  more  than  self-interest 
could  suggest  to  them.  By  this  conception  of  it, 
the  whole  relationship  of  master  and  slave  was 
lifted  uj)  and  transfigured,  as  an  earthly  parable  of 
the  relation  between  man  and  his  God.  Schmidt's 
"  History  of  the  Social  Results  of  Early  Christian- 
ity "  and  Lecky's  "History  of  European  Morals" 
trace  the  effect  of  this  teaching  in  the  gradual  and 
un revolutionary  abolition  of  slavery.  Says  the 
former :  — 

"Long  before  Chrysostom  had  raised  his  voice  in 
favor  of  slaves,  there  had  been  glorious  examples  of 
Christian  masters  freeing  their  slaves.  Tlie  earliest 
known  of  these  is  Hermes,  Prefect  of  Rome  under 
Trajan,  who  embraced  Christianity  with  his  wife, 
children,  and  1,250  slaves.  On  Easter  Day,  the  day 
of  their  baptism,  Hermes  gave  them  all  freedom,  and 
ample  assistance  to  enable  them  to  gain  a  liv^elihood. 
Shortly  afterwards  he  suffered  martyrdom  with  Bishop 
Alexander,  who  was  the  means  of  his  conversion.  An- 
other Prefect  of  Rome,  under  Diocletian,  Chromatius, 
was  celebrated  in  the  church  for  his  zeal  and  charity. 

1  1  Cor.  vii.  21,  22 ;  Eph.  vi.  5-8 ;  Col.  iii.  22-25. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  133 

He  set  free  1,400  slaves,  and  gave  them  abundant 
means  of  supjiort ;  he  said  that  those  who  had  God 
for  their  Father  ought  not  to  be  tlie  servants  of  man. 
Melania,  with  the  consent  of  her  husband  Pinius,  gave 
freedom  to  8,000  slaves  ;  Ovinius,  a  French  martyr,  to 
5,000.  These  great  examples  were  followed  by  Chris- 
tians who  were  not  so  rich.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
fourth  century  three  brothers  set  free  their  seventy- 
three  slaves.  Augustine  told  the  people  in  one  of  his 
homilies  that  several  clerks  of  the  church  of  Hippo  were 
going  to  emancipate  some  slaves  they  possessed.  We 
cannot  doubt  that  many  others  did  the  same,  though  the 
historians,  struck  only  with  what  shows  in  large  propor- 
tions, have  preserved  no  account  of  the  less  startling 
facts.  Whilst  rich  pagans  directed  in  their  will  that 
the  blood  of  their  slaves  should  be  shed  in  combats  in 
the  areria.  Christian  masters,  taught  by  the  church,  gave 
freedom  and  legacies  to  their  slaves,  by  their  will."  ^ 

The  Socialist  believes  in  manufacture  rather  than 
in  growth.  The  radical  Socialist  would  rub  off 
from  the  slate  all  that  past  history  has  written 
thereon,  and  write  in  its  place  a  new  scheme  for  the 
industry  of  the  future.  Christianity  is  founded  on 
the  belief  that  social  organisms  are  not  to  be  man- 
ufactured, that  they  are  a  growth,  and  that  the 
fundamental  condition  of  virtuous  growth  in  so- 
ciety is  virtue  in  the  individuals  of  whom  it  is 
composed.  Christianity,  therefore,  begins  with 
the  individual  and  works  toward  social  re^enera- 
tion  by  the  regeneration  of  the  individual. 

^  C.  Schmidt,  The  Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity,  p.  226. 


134     CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  church  is  a  capital- 
istic institution.  There  is  some  truth  in  the  asser- 
tion, which  is  really  less  an  accusation  than  a 
eulogy.  The  church  goes  into  a  region  where  the 
people  are  living  in  poverty  and  in  rags.  By 
Christian  teachings  it  puts  into  them  such  a  spirit 
of  honesty,  of  industry,  of  temperance,  of  thrift, 
that  they  begin  to  leave  the  saloon  and  seek  the 
savings  bank,  and  must  either  move  from  the 
neighborhood  to  one  of  greater  competence  and 
comfort,  or  remain  in  the  neighborhood,  making  it 
one  of  comj^etence  and  comfort.  One  object  of 
Christianity  as  of  Socialism  is  to  make  all  men 
capitalists.  This  object  Christianity  accomplishes 
wherever  it  succeeds  in  its  mission,  and  the  fact 
that  churches  are  capitalistic  institutions  is  a  wit- 
ness that  the  hope  of  social  reform  lies  in  the 
church  of  Christ. 

3.  Socialism  appeals  primarily  to  the  man  in 
his  lower  nature.  It  proj^oses  first  to  give  the 
ragged  and  dirty  man  a  bath  and  clean  clothes, 
then  to  provide  for  his  body ;  then  to  give  him  in- 
dustrial education  and  put  his  children  in  school, 
to  provide  for  the  intellect ;  then  to  win  for  him 
a  larger  income,  a  greater  share  in  the  world's 
wealth ;  as  to  God  and  immortality,  it  is  for  the 
present  silent.  It  postpones  all  consideration  of 
the  higher  needs  of  the  spirit  until  these  prelim- 
inary reforms  are  accomplished.  Socialism  is 
thus  often  atheistic  and  irreligious  ;  not  indeed 
necessarily  so,  but  certainly  not  necessarily  theistic 


CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIALISM.  135 

and  religious.  The  majority  of  Socialists  show 
greater  faith  in  a  Palace  of  Delight  than  in  a 
church,  in  ministry  to  the  body  and  the  mind  than 
in  aj^peals  to  the  higher  spiritual  nature. 

This  was  not  Christ's  method.  He  did  not  be- 
gin with  the  bottom  of  man  and  work  up  to  the 
top  ;  he  began  at  the  top  and  worked  down  toward 
the  bottom.  He  did  not  attempt  to  lift  men  up  by 
a  leverage  applied  from  below ;  he  attempted  to 
lift  them  up  by  a  hand  reached  down  from  above. 
Did  he  not  feed  five  thousand  in  the  wilderness  ? 
Yes !  after  he  had  preached  all  day ;  but  he 
preached  first  and  fed  afterwards.  This  also  was 
the  method  of  Socrates :  "  All  good  and  evil  here 
in  the  body  or  in  human  nature  originate  in  the 
soul,  and  overflow  from  thence,  as  from  the  head 
into  the  eyes,  and  therefore,  if  the  head  and  body 
are  to  be  well,  you  must  begin  by  curing  the  soul  • 
that  is  the  first  thinof."  i 

The  message  of  Christianity  is  that  of  the  poets 
and  prophets  of  all  ages,  who  pierce  the  disguise 
and  behold  and  address  themselves  to  the  living 
man  behind  the  mask.  Its  message  to  every  man 
groveling  in  the  dust,  degraded  by  his  own  ani- 
malism or  tram23led  under  foot  of  men,  degraded 
by  the  oppression  of  others,  is  the  message  of  God 
to  Ezekiel,  "  Son  of  man,  stand  upon  thy  feet,  and 
I  will  speak  unto  thee."  It  begins  with  the  dec- 
laration. You  are  sons  of  God,  you  are  immortal, 
life  has    infinite  possibilities    for  you,    arise    and 

^  Jo-wett'a  Plato,  The  Charmides,  vol.  i.,  p.  11. 


136      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

walk.  The  bird  is  in  prison  in  the  egg ;  conser- 
vatism would  leave  the  egg  unbroken,  leave  every- 
thing as  it  is  and  has  been  :  it  will  get  an  addled 
egg.  Radicalism  wonld  impatiently  break  the 
shell  to  let  the  imprisoned  captive  free ;  it  will  get 
a  dead  bird.  Christianity  broods  the  egg  and  the 
bird  breaks  its  own  shell. 

There  is  an  old  Norse  legend  that  the  god  of 
summer  was  killed  and  carried  off  in  captivity  to 
the  prison-house  of  the  dead,  and  the  whole  world 
went  into  mourning.  The  flowers  folded  their 
petals,  the  trees  dropped  their  leaves,  the  brooks 
ceased  their  murmuring  song  and  pulled  an  icy 
coverlet  over  themselves,  and  the  whole  earth  cov- 
ered its  dead  self  with  a  white  shroud.  Then  one 
of  the  gods  said  :  "  I  will  go  to  the  abode  of  the 
dead,  cost  what  it  may,  and  see  if  I  cannot  ransom 
and  bring  back  the  god  of  summer."  He  went, 
riding  through  the  dark  and  dangerous  valley,  un- 
til he  came  to  the  prison-house,  and  pleaded  there 
for  liberation,  and  at  last  ransomed  the  god  of 
summer  so  far  as  this,  that  the  keeper  of  the 
prison-house  said :  "  Your  god  may  return  to  you 
in  the  spring,  but  in  the  fall  must  come  back 
again."  So,  every  spring,  according  to  this  old 
legend,  the  god  of  the  summer  returns  to  the 
earth,  and  then  the  whole  earth  rejoices  ;  and  every 
fall  he  goes  away,  and  then  the  whole  earth 
mourns.  The  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  are  trying 
to  bring  the  God  of  the  summer  into  the  hearts 
of  the  children  of  men  ;  certain  that  so  long  as 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIALISM.  137 

human  hearts  banish  Him  from  their  presence,  and 
the  kingdom  is  the  kingdom  of  selfishness,  so  long 
it  will  be  the  kingdom  of  poverty  and  wretched- 
ness ;  but  that  when  He  comes,  and  the  world  re- 
ceives Him,  all  the  flowers  will  be  fragrant,  and  all 
the  trees  full  of  green  leaf,  and  all  the  birds  full 
of  song,  for  He  brings  life. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Christ's  law  of  the  family. 

The  family  is  the  first  and  most  fundamental 
social  organization.  Upon  it  all  other  social  or- 
ganizations are  founded.  Upon  its  purity  and 
permanence  the  purity  and  permanence  of  the 
social  order  in  all  its  forms  depend.  If  it  is 
corrupt,  life  is  corrupted  at  the  spring;  no  pro- 
cesses of  subsequent  purification  can  counteract 
so  fatal  a  pollution.  The  problem  of  the  family 
is,  therefore,  the  most  important  of  all  social 
problems.  What  is  marriage  ?  What  is  the  con- 
stitution of  the  family  as  founded  in  and  by 
marriage  ?  For  what  causes  may  it  be  dissolved  ? 
These  are  questions  more  important  than  any 
respecting  the  constitution  of  the  state  or  the 
divine  order  of  the  church ;  for  both  church  and 
state  depend  upon  the  answer  which  social  practice 
gives    to    these    questions.^     What    answer   eTesus 

1  "  I  incline  to  think  that  the  future  of  America  is  of  greater 
importance  to  Christendom  at  large  than  that  of  any  other  coun- 
try ;  that  that  future,  in  its  highest  features,  vitally  depends  upon 
the  incidents  of  marriage,  and  that  no  country  has  ever  been  so 
directly  challenged  as  America  now  is,  to  choose  its  course  defi- 
nitively with  reference  to  one,  if  not  more  than  one,  of  the  very 
greatest  of  ^hose  incidents.     The  solidity  and  health  of  the  social 


CHRJSTS    LAW    OF    THE    FAMILY.  139 

Christ  gave  to  these  questions  it  is  the  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  consider.  For  that  purpose  I  wish, 
first,  to  put  clearly  in  contrast  the  two  concep- 
tions,—  the  pagan  and  the  Christian,  —  and  to 
trace  the  processes  by  which  the  former  has  en- 
tered into  our  modern  life. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
with  unconscious  sagacity,  put  itself  at  the  door- 
way of  life.  It  maintained  that  marriage  is  a 
sacrament,  and  can  be  entered  into  only  with  the 
approbation  and  benediction  of  the  church.^  It 
maintained  that  the  church  alone  can  determine 
who  may  marry,  and  under  what  circumstances. 
It  did  not,  indeed,  deny  the  legality  of  pagan 
marriages ;  on  the  contrary,  it  affirmed  their  legal- 
ity :  but  it  declared  "  matrimony  to  be  a  sacrament 
of  the  new  law,  instituted  by  Christ,  whereby  a 
new  dignity  is  added  to  the  lawful  compact  of 
marriage,  and  grace  given  to  those  who  worthily 
receive  it."  This  grace  can  be  bestowed  only 
upon  those  who  enter  into  the  marriage  sacra- 
body  depend  upon  the  soundness  of  its  unit.  That  unit  is  the 
family ;  and  the  hinge  of  the  family  is  to  be  found  in  the  great 
and  profound  institution  of  marriage."  W.  E.  Gladstone,  North 
American  Revieiv,  December,  1889,  vol.  cxlix.  p.  641. 

^  From  Paul's  words,  "  This  is  a  great  mystery,"  translated  by 
the  Vulgate  "  Saeraraentum  haec  magnum  est,"  the  dogma  that 
marriage  is  a  sacrament  was  gradually  developed.  Though  this 
dogma  was  fully  recognized  in  the  twelfth  century,  marriage  was 
nevertheless  considered  valid  without  ecclesiastical  benediction 
till  the  year  156.3,  when  the  Council  of  Trent  made  it  essentially 
a  religious  ceremony.  Westerraarck,  History  of  Human  Mar- 
riage, p.  427. 


140      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

mentally;  that   is,   with   the  approval   and   bene- 
diction of  the  church.^ 

Protestantism,  revolting  from  the  Koman  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  inclined  instinctively  to  deny  every 
assumption  of  that  church,  denied  that  marriage 
is  a  sacrament;  denied  that  the  benediction  of  the 
church  is  necessary  to  marriage  ;  denied  that  the 
church  has  anything  to  do  in  determining  who  may 
marry  and  who  may  not.  Luther  held  that  mar- 
riage was  an  affair  of  the  state,  not  of  the  church. 
The  French  Revolution  carried  out  this  doctrine 
to  its  logical  conclusion.  "  The  law,"  said  the 
French  Constitution,  ^'considers  marriage  simply 
as  a  civil  contract."  ^  In  France  to-day  marriage 
cannot  be  performed  by  the  church.  It  can  be 
performed  only  before  the  civil  authorities,  though 
the  parties  may,  if  they  please,  confirm  it  by  a 
religious  ceremony  of  their  own  choosing.  Thus, 
after  denying  that  marriage  is  a  sacrament,  and 
affirming  that  it  is  simply  a  civil  contract,  the 
next  step  was  a  natural  if  not  a  necessary  one. 
It  was  that  the  parties  to  this  marriage  are  co- 
equal partners  in  a  common  enterprise,  who  have 
contracted  to  live  together.  Gradually  laws  have 
been  changed  to  conform  to  this  conception,  and 
the  legal  rights  of  married  women  have  been  en- 
larged in  accordance  with  this  theory.  It  is  not 
necessary  here  to  trace  the  process,  nor  describe 

1  Faith  of  Catholics,  vol.  iii.  p.  239;  Catholic  Diet.,  art.  "Mar- 
riage," and  authorities  quoted  in  both  volumes. 

2  Westerraarek,  History  of  Marriage,  p.  428. 


CHMIsm    LAW    OF    THE    FAMILY.  141 

the  extent  to  which  these  changes  have  been  car- 
ried, nor  even  to  consider  how  far  they  are  required 
by  justice  and  tend  to  promote  the  common  wel- 
fare. It  is  enough  to  note  the  fact  that  they  often, 
indirectly  if  not  explicitly,  assume  that  the  law 
recognizes  in  marriage  only  a  partnership.  What- 
ever else  it  may  be  in  the  thought  of  the  parties, 
legally  it  is,  according  to  this  conception,  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  a  partnership.  And  since  hus- 
band and  wife  are  simply  partners,  —  since  mar- 
riage is  a  civil  contract,  by  which  they  entered 
into  this  partnership,  —  it  was  natural  to  draw  the 
conclusion  that  this  partnership  may  be  dissolved 
by  the  mutual  agreement  of  the  parties.  As  mar- 
riage is  formed  by  a  civil  contract,  so  marriage 
may  be  annulled  by  the  parties  who  formed  it. 
Thus  we  get  the  three  steps  in  the  development : 
First,  marriage  a  civil  contract ;  second,  the  hus- 
band and  wife  coequal  partners  in  a  common 
enterprise  ;  third,  the  partnership  thus  formed 
dissolvable  practically  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
parties. 

History  sometimes  repeats  itself,  and,  in  this 
change  whicli  passed  over  the  conception  of  the 
marriage  relation  in  the  sixteenth  to  the  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  history  did  repeat  itself.  In 
ancient  Rome,  marriage  was  regarded  as  a  sacred 
institution.  It  was  accompanied  by  religious  cere- 
monies, and  was  practically  indissoluble.^  But, 
with    the    social    corruption    which    characterized 

1  Da  Coulang-er,  The  Ancient  City,  chap.  ii. 


142      CHRISTIAXITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  later  history  of  Rome,  came  a  change  analo- 
gous to  the  one  I  have  already  described.  Mar- 
riage was  regarded  as  a  civil  contract ;  the  husband 
and  the  wife  were  looked  upon  as  equal  partners 
in  a  common  enterprise  ;  and  the  partnership  was 
dissolvable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  partners.  The 
result  is  thus  described  by  Mr.  Lecky  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  European  Morals  :" — 

"  With  the  exception  of  her  dowry,  which  passed  into 
the  hands  of  her  husband,  she  (the  wife)  held  her  prop- 
erty in  her  own  right ;  she  inherited  her  share  of  the 
wealth  of  her  father,  and  she  retained  it  altogether 
independent  of  her  husband.  A  very  considerable  por- 
tion of  Roman  wealth  passed  into  the  uncontrolled 
possession  of  women.  The  private  man  of  business  of 
the  wife  was  a  favorite  character  with  the  comedians, 
and  the  tyranny  exercised  by  rich  wives  over  their  hus- 
bands —  to  whom  it  is  said  they  sometimes  lent  money 
at  high  interest  —  a  continual  theme  of  satirists.  A 
complete  revolution  had  thus  passed  over  the  family. 
Instead  of  being  constructed  on  the  principle  of  auto- 
cracy, it  was  constructed  on  the  principle  of  coequal 
partnership.  The  legal  position  of  the  wife  had  become 
one  of  com})lete  independence,  while  her  social  position 
was  one  of  great  dignity." 

This,  at  first  sight,  looks  like  a  great  reform, 
but  what  was  the  result  of  this  reform  ? 

"  Being  looked  upon  simply  as  a  civil  contract  entered 
into  for  the  happiness  of  the  contracting  parties,  the 
continuance  of  marriage  depended  upon  mutual  consent. 
Either  party  might  dissolve  it  at  will,  and  the  dissolu- 


CHRIST'S    LAW    OF    THE    FAMILV.  143 

tion  gave  both  parties  the  right  to  remarry.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  under  this  system  the  obligations  of 
marriage  were  treated  with  extreme  levity.  We  find 
Cicero  repudiating  his  wife,  Terentia,  because  he  wanted 
a  new  dowry ;  Maecenas  continually  changing  his  wife  ; 
Semphronius  Sophus  repudiating  his  wife  because  she 
had  once  been  to  the  public  games  without  his  know- 
ledge ;  Paulus  Emilius  taking  the  same  step  witliout 
assigning  the  reason,  and  defending  himself  by  saying  : 
"  My  shoes  are  new  and  well  made,  but  no  one  knows 
where  they  pinch  me."  Nor  did  women  show  less 
alacrity  in  repudiating  their  husbands.  Seneca  de- 
nounced this  evil  with  especial  vehemence,  declaring 
that  divorce  in  Rome  no  longer  brought  with  it  any 
shame,  and  that  there  were  women  who  reckoned  their 
years  rather  by  their  husbands  than  by  the  consuls. 
Martial  s})eaks  of  a  woman  who  had  already  arrived 
at  her  tenth  husband ;  Juvenal,  of  a  woman  having 
eight  husbands  in  five  years.  But  the  most  extraor- 
dinary recorded  instance  of  this  kind  is  related  by  St. 
Jerome,  who  assures  us  that  there  existed  in  Rome  a 
wife  who  was  married  to  her  twenty-third  husband,  she 
herself  being  his  twenty-first  wife." 

Thus  the  experiment  of  regarding  marriage  as  a 
civil  contract,  and  the  parties  to  it  as  coequal  part- 
ners in  a  common  enterprise,  and  the  partnership 
dissolvable  at  the  will  of  the  jDarties,  that  is,  the 
pagan  conception,  has  had  a  fair  trial  on  a  great 
scale. 

Christ's  instructions  respecting  marriage  and 
divorce  are  based  on  a  very  different  theory  and 
involve  a  very  different  conception.     "  The  Phari- 


144      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

sees  also  came  unto  him,  tempting  him,  and  saying 
unto  him,  Is  it  lawful  for  a  man  to  put  away  his 
wife  for  every  cause?"  Under  the  Roman  law, 
any  man  could  put  away  his  wife,  and  any  woman 
could  put  away  her  husband.  In  Palestine  there 
was  one  qualification :  If  a  man  put  his  wife  away, 
he  was  required  to  give  a  statement  in  writing  of 
the  reason  why  he  did  so.  There  was  that,  and 
only  that,  protection  to  the  wife.  In  other  words, 
he  had  to  do  what  most  mistresses  feel  bound  to 
do  when  they  dismiss  a  cook,  —  give  her  a  letter. 
"  And  he  answered  and  said  unto  them.  Have  ye 
not  read  that  he  which  made  them  at  the  begin- 
ing  made  them  male  and  female,  and  said.  For 
this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother  and 
shall  cleave  to  his  wife  ;  and  they  twain  shall  be 
one  flesh?  Wherefore  the}^  are  no  more  twain, 
but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined 
together  let  not  man  put  asunder." 

If  we  analyze  this  passage  carefully,  we  shall  see 
that  it  contradicts  the  statement  of  paganism  at 
each  one  of  the  three  crucial  points.  It  denies 
that  marriage  is  a  civil  contract,  and  declares  it 
to  be  a  divine  ordinance;  it  denies  that  the  parties 
are  partners  in  a  common  enterprise,  and  declares 
that  they  are  "  one  flesh  ;  "  and  it  denies  that  the 
contract  entered  into  —  the  marriage  contract  —  is 
dissolvable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  parties.  Let  us 
look  at  these  three  propositions  separately. 

In  the  first  place,  according  to  Christ's  instruc- 
tions, marriao^e  is  not  a  civil  contract  and  is  not 


CHBJSrS    LAW    OF    THE    FAMILY.  145 

founded  on  a  civil  contract.  The  revived  pagan- 
ism which  bases  marriage  on  a  civil  contract,  and 
makes  it  a  form  of  partnership,  is  as  false  as  that 
other  analogous  notion  that  government  is  founded 
on  a  "  social  contract."  ^  History,  philosophy,  and 
religion  combine  to  refute  it.  In  Anglo-Saxon 
communities  the  free  agreement  of  the  bride  and 
groom  is  the  door  through  which  they  enter  into 
marriage.  But  this  fact  no  more  makes  such  con- 
tract the  foundation  of  marriage  than  does  the  fact 
that  the  foreigner  enters  into  citizenship  in  the 
United  States,  by  voluntarily  applying  for  naturali- 
zation, make  contract  the  foundation  of  the  State. 
In  truth,  in  many  —  probably  in  most  —  commu- 
nities, free  contract  between  bride  and  groom  is  not 
even  the  door  through  which  the}'  enter  into  the  mar- 
ried relation.  In  most  Latin  races,  the  contract  is 
generally  made  by  the  parents  of  the  married  pair. 
In  India  the  contract  is  often  made  before  the 
girl  has  reached  an  age  in  which  she  herself  is 
competent  to  make  a  contract.  Among  some  sav- 
age peoples,  marriage  is  entered  into  by  the  pur- 
chase of  the  bride  ;  among  others,  by  her  forcible 
capture :  in  neither  case  has  the  girl  anything 
whatever  to  say  upon  the  question  to  whom  she 
shall  be  married.^  But  in  the  Latin  races,  in 
India,  and  in  these  savage  tribes,  the  parties  are 
married  though  they  have  made  no  contract. 
Contract  is    essential  to  marriage    only   among  a 

^  See  ante,  eh.  iv. 

^  Westermarck,  History  of  Human  Marriage,  eh.  xvii.-xix. 


146      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

portion  —  probably  only  a  minority  —  of  the  human 
race.  While  marriage  never  ought  to  take  place 
without  the  free  consent  of  both  parties,  it  often 
does  take  place  when  one  or  both  the  j^arties  are 
under  compulsion. 

Marriage  is  not  a  human  contrivance  ;  it  is  a 
divine  order.  It  was  founded  in  the  creation  of 
the  human  race.  It  dates  from  the  beginning  of 
humanity.  It  is  as  old  as  man  and  woman  on  the 
earth.^  When  God  made  man  he  made  them  male 
and  female,  for  he  intended  marriage  from  the  very 
inception  of  the  race.  "  Male  and  female  created 
he  them,"  that  out  of  the  very  creation  marriage 
mioht  oTow. 

It  is  the  one  permanent,  enduring  social  order. 
All  other  forms  of  social  life  have  changed.  Lan- 
guages once  the  common  vehicle  of  speech  are 
dead.  Books  once  palpitating  with  human  life 
are  found  only  in  the  great  libraries,  —  the  cata^ 
combs  of  literature.  Governments  have  passed 
through  successive  stages  —  absolute  monarchy, 
oligarchy,  aristocracy,  universal  democracy  —  to 
our  present  representative  republicanism.  Re- 
ligion has  undergone    revolutions  as  great.     If  a 

1  "  It  is,  indeed,  older  than  the  human  race.  It  runs  back  into 
the  very  beginning  of  creation.  It  is  the  law  of  life,  —  not  only  of 
the  animal  but  also  of  the  vegetable  orders.  And,  in  general,  the 
higher  life  rises  in  the  scale  of  being,  the  nearer  its  approach  to 
both  monogamy  and  perpetuity.  Promiscuous  marriages,  tempo- 
rary relationships,  easy  separations,  characterize  the  barbarous 
tribes.  The  modern  movement  in  this  direction  is  a  distinct 
reversion  to  barbaric  and  even  brutal  conditions."  JSee  Wester- 
marck,  History  of  Marriage,  especially  chs.  iv.,  v.,  xx.,  xxii.,  xxiii. 


CIJRISrS   LAW   OF    THE   FAMILY.  147 

Jew  of  the  time  of  Solomon  were  to  come  into  a 
modern  church  he  would  not  think  he  was  in  a 
worshiping  assembly.  He  would  ask,  Where  is 
the  altar  ?  where  are  the  priests  ?  where  is  the 
ritual  ?  where  are  the  resplendent  robes  ?  where 
is  the  blood  that  flows  in  torrents  ?  where  are  the 
sacrifices?  He  would  understand  our  creed  as 
little  as  our  ritual.  He  knew  nothing  of  the 
Trinity,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  atonement,  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible.  The  one  thing  that  has 
remained  from  the  day  of  Eden  down  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  and  will  remain  as  long  as  the  human  race 
lives  on  the  earth,  is  the  marriage  of  one  man  to 
one  woman.  God  made  marriage  when  he  made 
man,  —  when  "  male  and  female  created  he  them." 
In  the  second  place,  Christ  denies  that  the  par- 
ties to  marriage  are  coequal  partners  in  a  com- 
mon enterprise.  In  a  partnership,  two  persons, 
maintaining  their  separate  interests  and  their  sepa- 
rate individuality,  combine  for  certain  definite 
purposes.  If  those  purposes  cannot  be  well  ac- 
complished by  the  combination,  they  may  separate 
again.  If  their  combination  has  involved  any 
other  interests,  those  interests  must  be  provided 
for  ;  that  is  all  which  the  law  requires.  But  when 
a  man  and  woman  join  in  wedlock,  they  are  no 
more  twain.  A  new  person  is  created.  They  are 
henceforth  one  flesh,  that  is,  one  earthly  individu- 
ality. They  are  henceforth  a  unit,  and  on  the 
maintenance  of  this  unit  the  unity  of  society,  the 
unity   of    government,    the    unity  of   the    church. 


148      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

depend.  The  famfly  is  not  a  partnership  ;  it  is  an 
autocracy.  This  view  is  not  in  accordance  with 
the  current  popular  conception,  though  there  are 
indications  of  a  reaction  against  the  sentiment 
which  has  been  popular  for  the  last  twenty  or 
twenty-five  years.  The  autocratic  conception  of 
the  family  is  clearly  expressed  by  Paul,  though,  in 
his  instructions  on  this  subject,  he  is  not  looked 
upon  altogether  with  favor,  even  in  orthodox  circles. 
It  is  said  that  he  was  a  bachelor  and  did  not  know. 
"  Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  hus- 
bands, as  unto  the  Lord.  For  the  husband  is  the 
head  of  the  wife,  even  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the 
church ;  and  he  is  the  saviour  of  the  body.  There- 
fore, as  the  church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so  let  the 
wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  in  everything.^ 
Husbands,  love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also 
loved  the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it."  The 
household  is  a  unit,  and  the  husband  is  the  head 
of  the  household. 

Every  organization  must  have  a  head.  Is  this 
organization  a  church  ?  The  head  may  be  a  poj^e 
in  Rome  ruling  over  all ;  it  may  be  a  general 
assembly  to  which  all  presbyteries  and  all  local 
churches  are  subordinate  ;  it  may  be  the  majority 
in  the  local  congregation,  to  which  the  minister 
and  church  officers  are  alike  subject.  But  some- 
where there  is  a  final  authority,  or  there  is  no 
organization.     The  final  authority   in   the  normal 

^  Ephes.  V.  22-25.  "  In  everything- ''  is  limited  by  the  family  ; 
i.  e.   in  ''  everything  in  the  body  "  of  which  they  are  members. 


CHRIST'S   LAW    OF    THE   FAMILY.  149 

family  is  the  husband ;  he  is  thfe  head  of  the  house- 
hold. What  is  the  alternative  ?  Either  there  is  a 
rift  in  the  family,  in  one  department  the  wife 
supreme,  in  the  other  department  the  husband 
supreme,  neither  entering  into  the  other's  depart- 
ment, —  then  there  is  not  a  unit,  not  these  twain 
one  flesh,  not  a  single  person  with  one  life,  one 
will,  one  heart ;  but  a  divided  household,  divided 
at  the  very  foundation  :  or  there  is  a  perpetual 
struggle  going  on  between  the  husband  and  the 
wife  ;  she  endeavoring  to  get  control  by  cunning, 
he  endeavoring  to  get  control  by  force  ;  she  gen- 
erally getting  the  better  of  it,  for  cunning  habitu- 
rWj  gets  the  better  of  force,  —  then  the  family 
is  a  perpetual  battle-field.  Or  else  the  divine 
order  is  reversed,  and  the  wife  is  the  head  of  the 
household,  —  a  condition  which  does  not  need  any 
comment.  The  husband  and  wife  may  wisely 
divide  between  them,  by  a  common  consent,  the 
responsibilities  of  the  household  ;  that  does  not 
affect  the  autocracy.  In  some  families,  through 
invalidism,  intellectual  or  physical  or  moral,  or  all 
three  combined,  the  husband  cannot  be  the  head 
and  the  wife  must  be,  usually  to  the  discomfort  of 
both.  But  that  is  not  a  normal  household.  The 
normal,  the  divine  order,  is  the  order  in  which  the 
husband  is  the  head  of  the  household,  and  the 
household  is  an  autocracy. 

This  is  not  to  affirm  that  man  is  superior  to 
woman.  That  has  often  been  affirmed ;  I  repu- 
diate it  with  indignation.     It  is  not  to  affirm  that 


150      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

the  husband  is  superior  to  the  wife.  That  has 
been  affirmed ;  I  repudiate  it  no  less  indignantly. 
There  is  no  question  of  superiority  or  inferiority. 
The  question  is  of  headship,  not  of  superiority. 
An  inferior  individual  may  be  a  superior  officer. 
During  the  Vicksburg  camj)aign  Grant  was  the 
greater  general,  but  Halleck  was  the  superior 
officer.  The  President  of  the  United  States  is 
the  head  of  the  nation,  but  he  is  not  necessarily 
the  greatest  man  in  the  nation.  I  understand, 
then,  that  Christ's  law  of  the  household,  as  inter- 
preted and  applied  by  Paul,  involves  these  two 
laws :  First,  Wives,  submit  to  your  husbands ; 
second,  Husbands,  love  your  wives,  as  Christ  loved 
you  and  gave  himself  for  you.  In  the  poems  and 
stories  and  sermons,  the  women  are  eulogized  as 
cross-bearers.  It  is  small  credit  to  husbands  that 
literature  always  puts  the  crosses  on  the  wives. 
It  is  the  men  who  ought  to  be  the  cross-bearers. 

This  does  no  dishonor  to  woman.  It  is  honor- 
ing her.  It  does  not  deprive  her  of  her  rights. 
It  confers  upon  her  the  rights  which  paganism 
takes  away.  For,  in  the  order  of  nature,  man  is 
the  soldier.  It  is  man  who  is  to  shoulder  the 
musket  and  go  forth  to  battle  to  protect  the  wife. 
If  bread  is  to  be  got  by  hard  toil,  it  is  the  man 
who  is  to  subdue  nature,  and  get  the  bread  for  his 
wife.  It  is  not  a  woman's  right  to  harness  herself 
with  the  ox  and  plow  in  the  fields,  as  women  do 
in  some  countries.  It  is  man  who  is  to  do  the 
work   and    take  the  responsibilities,    that   woman 


CHRIST'S   LAW    OF    THE   FAMILY.  151 

may  minister  to  love  and  life.  Responsibility 
and  authority  are  always  commensurate.  An  un- 
defined autliority  means  an  undefined  responsiblity, 
of  all  responsibilities  the  hardest  to  bear.  The 
conception  that  marriage  is  a  partnership  puts  an 
undefined  responsibility  on  the  wife.  A  divided 
authority  involves  a  divided  responsibility,  of  all 
divisions  the  most  prolific  of  controversy.  It  is 
a  conception  of  marriage  that  divides  the  respon- 
sibility between  the  husband  and  the  wife,  and 
creates  controversy.  The  wife  has  a  right  to  have 
the  responsibility  of  the  family  borne  by  her 
husband,  that  she  may  be  free  for  the  cares  and 
ministries  of  maternity.  Man  should  be  the  de- 
fender, and  man  should  be  the  burden-bearer.  I 
cannot  look  with  enthusiasm  upon  the  new  era 
in  which  women  are  rushing  into  every  kind  of 
employment,  and  lowering  the  wages  of  men  by 
doing  men's  work.  I  would  not  close  the  door 
against  them,  nor  shut  them  out  from  any  vo- 
cation ;  1  would  give  them  the  largest  libert}^ 
But  men,  with  their  strong  arms,  ought  to  fight 
life's  battles  and  win  life's  bread,  and  leave  the 
women  free  from  the  burden  of  bread- winning  and 
battling,  that  they  may  minister  to  the  higher  life 
of  faith  and  hope  and  love.  Nor  will  our  indus- 
trial situation  be  what  it  ought  to  be,  until  every 
faithful  husband  and  father  can  earn  enough  for 
his  wife  and  children,  without  calling  them  to 
labor  by  his  side  in  the  mine,  the  mill,  the  shop, 
or  the  office. 


152      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

In  the  third  place,  since  marriage  is  not  a  civil 
contract,  and  the  husband  and  wife  are  not  co- 
equal partners  in  a  common  enterprise,  marriage 
is  not  dissolvable  at  the  pleasure  of  the  parties  to 
it.  The  common  argument  for  such  dissolution  is 
very  simple  and  easily  stated.  That  it  is  specious 
may  be  conceded.  "  Why  should  those  remain 
bound  together  by  law  whose  hearts  are  not  bound 
together  by  love  ?  Why  should  a  woman  remain 
in  marital  bondage  to  a  man  when  she  does 
not  love  and  perhaps  cannot  even  respect  him? 
Marriage  is  the  union  of  souls ;  if  the  souls  are 
not  united,  the  marriage  is  dissolved."  Such  is 
the  argument  for  freedom  of  divorce.  Such  is 
not  Christ's  view  of  either  marriage  or  divorce. 
Marriage  is  not  a  union  of  souls :  it  is  the  mating 
of  two  persons  in  one  flesh.  Two  souls  may  be 
joined,  and  yet  there  be  no  marriage ;  marriage 
there  may  be,  and  yet  no  union  of  souls.  Mar- 
riage is  the  creation  of  a  new  earthly  relation. 
For  the  highest  happiness,  where  the  life  is  one 
the  souls  should  be  one ;  but  it  is  the  unity  of  the 
lives,  not  of  the  souls,  which  constitutes  marriage. 
Hence  marriage  ceases  at  death,  though  spiritual 
union  does  not.  Hence,  too,  marriage  is  not  dis- 
soluble because  love  is  dead.  The  mere  cessation 
of  sympathy  no  more  annuls  marriage  than  it 
annuls  any  other  family  relation.  It  is  very  de- 
sirable that  the  son  should  reverence  the  father, 
and  that  the  father  should  sympathize  with  the 
son.     But    the    son    does    not   cease    to  be  a  son 


CHEISrS  LAW   OF   THE   FAMILY.  153 

because  the  father  is  unworthy  of  reverence,  nor 
does  the  father  cease  to  be  father  because  he  is 
unable  to  sympathize  with  his  son.  So  it  is  of 
the  utmost  moment  that  husband  and  wife  love 
and  honor  each  other,  but  they  do  not  cease  to 
be  husband  and  wife  because  they  cannot  love  and 
honor.  Love  and  honor  make  the  result  of  the 
marriage  blessed,  but  they  do  not  constitute  the 
relation. 

And  as  Christ  does  not  accept  the  definition 
of  marriage  as  a  "  union  of  souls,"  so  neither  does 
he  accept  incompatibility  of  temper  as  a  ground  of 
divorce.  His  words  on  this  subject  are  as  explicit 
as  any  in  his  teachings :  "  Whosoever  shall  put 
away  his  wife,  except  it  be  for  fornication,  and 
shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery;  and 
whoso  marrieth  her  which  is  put  away  committeth 
adultery."  ^ 

It  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  we  are  not 
to  interpret  Christ's  commands  as  statutes.  They 
are  the  enunciations  of  great  general  j^rinciples, 
not  the  issuance  of  special  edicts.  We  must  re- 
member that,  when  Christ  lived,  a  man  could  put 
away  his  wife  of  his  own   volition,   that,   even  in 

^  Matthew  xix.  9.  The  original,  rendered  "  fornication,"  signi- 
fies, not  merely  adultery,  but,  in  strictness  of  speech,  harlotry  ; 
and,  though  I  would  not  press  this  distinction,  it  indicates,  so  far 
as  it  indicates  anything,  that  Christ  would  recognize  no  divorce 
except  for  persistent,  continuous,  and  habitual  crime  against  the 
marriage  relation.  Milton's  labored  attempt  to  prove  that  an 
ineradicable  incompatibility  is  fornication  is  a  marvel  of  theolo- 
gical special  pleading. 


154     CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

Palestine,  all  that  he  had  to  do  in  dismissing  her 
was  to  give  a  writing  stating  why  he  did  so. 
Speaking  to  men  who  are  under  this  state  of  law, 
Christ  says,  "  No  man  has  a  right  to  put  away 
his  wafe  except  for  the  one  crime  that  does  of 
itself  destroy  the  family."  But  it  does  not  follow 
that  Christ  would  say  that  an  independent  and 
impartial  judge  may  never  decree  a  separation 
between  husband  and  wife  for  any  other  cause. 
That  is  quite  a  different  matter.  Christ  says  the 
husband  must  not  dismiss  the  wife  save  for  the 
one  crime,  but  he  does  not  say  that  an  indepen- 
dent and  impartial  tribunal  may  not  decree  a 
separation  save  for  the  one  crime.  It  might  well 
be  that,  under  a  system  in  which  the  husband  is 
judge  and  jury,  deciding  on  his  sole  responsibility 
whether  the  marriage  should  be  dissolved,  he 
ought  not  to  dissolve  it  except  for  the  one  cause ; 
while  under  a  system  in  which  no  dissolution  is 
possible,  except  by  the  decision  of  an  impartial 
tribunal,  such  dissolution  might  be  decreed  for 
cruel  and  inhuman  treatment,  chronic  intemper- 
ance, or  deliberate  desertion. 

But  certainly  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  these  instructions  that  divorces  should 
be  granted  in  the  way  in  which,  and  for  the 
causes  for  which,  they  are  granted  in  the  United 
States.^ 

1  The  following  statistics  were  published  some  years  ago  by 
Dr.  S.  W.  Dike.  There  has  been  no  substantial  improvement 
since  then  :  — 


CHRIST S   LAW    OF    THE    FAMILY.  155 

To-day  it  is  a  very  simple  thing  for  any  couple 
to  procure  a  divorce.  One  or  the  other  goes 
across  the  continent  to  some  Western  State,  and  in 
a  period  of  four  or  six  weeks  the  separation  is  com- 
pleted. Sometimes  some  pseudo  act  of  violence  is 
performed  for  the  very  j^urpose  of  securing  the  di- 
vorce. The  husband  gives  his  wife  a  gentle  slap, 
or  the  wife  gives  her  husband  a  gentle  slap,  in  the 
presence  of  some  one  summoned  by  the  parties  for 
the  purpose,  and  a  divorce  is  then  granted  on  the 
ground  of  cruelty.  Sometimes,  the  husband  hav- 
ing left  his  wife  by  previous  agreement,  or  the  wife 
the  husband,  a  decree  is  obtained  on  the  ground 
of  desertion.  Sometimes  not  even  this  is  required 
by  the  courts.  The  fault  is  less  in  the  law  than  in 
the  administration  of  the  law.  In  California,  for 
example,  the  law  allows  divorce  for,  among  other 

In  Connecticut  there  is  annually  1  divorce  to  every  10  marriag-es. 


In  Vermont            "        '' 

u 

1      " 

" 

14 

In  Massachusetts  "       " 

" 

1        '* 

u 

21 

In  N.  Hampshire  "       " 

u 

" 

11 

In  Rhode  Island  "       " 

u 

" 

11 

In  Maine                 *'       " 

(( 

" 

10 

In  Chicago             "       " 

" 

u 

9.5 

In  San  Francisco  "       " 

u 

u 

6 

The  proportion  has  been  rapidly  increasing'  in  the  last  twenty 
years.  Statistics  carefully  gathered  from  every  European  state 
show  the  same  tendency  and  the  same  results.  Dr.  Dike  says : 
"  Apparently  the  divorce  rate  has  doubled  in  those  parts  of  the 
United  States  where  we  have  the  facts,  and  in  most  European 
coimtries,  within  forty  years  at  the  farthest,  and  mostly  within 
half  that  period.  The  increase  is  found  in  Protestant  and  Cath- 
olic populations,  and  even  in  Russia  under  the  Greek  Church, 
though  more  among  Protestants  than  others." 


156      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

causes,  "  extreme  cruelty."  Mr.  Lee  Merriwether, 
in  the  Westminster  Review  for  June,  1869,^  gives 
several  pages  of  extracts  from  the  court  records, 
which  contain  a  dismal  showing  of  iniidelity, 
cruelty,  intemperance,  and  desertion,  but  also  a  dis- 
mal showing  of  the  utter  disregard  by  California 
courts  of  the  sj^irit  of  the  law,  and  an  utter  pros- 
titution of  legal  proceedings  to  facilitate  the  sep- 
aration of  couples  who  have  simply  grown  tired  of 
each  other.  A  few  quotations  will  suffice  as  illus- 
trations :  — 

"  The  witness  testified  that  he  had  seen  the 
plaintiff  with  but  one  button  on  his  vest,  and  that 
he  heard  the  defendant  say  that  she  would  not  al- 
low the  plaintiff,  her  husband,  to  go  to  fires  at 
night.  The  court  decided  that  the  wife  was  guilty 
of  cruel  and  inhuman  treatment,  and  granted  a  de- 
cree of  divorce." 

"  Defendant  treats  plaintiff  with  great  and  un- 
merited contempt,  having  said  that  he  did  not  care 
whether  she  left  him  or  not.  The  foregoing  remark 
was  adjudged  to  be  cruel  and  inhuman  treatment, 
as  it  caused  mental  anguish  ;  a  decree  was  accord- 
ingly granted." 

"  My  wife  would  not  get  up  in  the  morning,  nor 
would  she  call  me  in  the  morning ;  she  would  not 
do  anything  I  requested  her  to  do.  All  this  has 
caused  me  mental  suffering  and  anguish."  Divorce 
granted. 

"  The  defendant  does  not  come  home  until  ten 
1  Vol.  cxxxi.,  p.  G7G  ff. 


CHRIST S    LAW    OF    THE    FAMILY.  157 

o'clock  at  night,  and  when  he  does  return  he  keeps 
the  x)hiintiff  (wife)  awake,  talking  sometimes  until 
midnight."      Divorce  granted. 

But  perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  of  all  the 
cases  was  this  :  "  During  our  whole  married  life 
my  husband  has  never  offered  to  take  me  out 
ridino-.  This  has  been  a  source  of  great  mental 
suffering  and  injury."      Divorce  granted. 

This  is  worse  than  the  old  paganism,  because  it 
is  paganism  i^lus  hypocrisy.  We  pretend  to  allow 
a  divorce  only  for  cruel  and  inhuman  treatment, 
but  we  allow  divorce  for  failing  to  sew  buttons  on, 
and  for  talking  until  midnight.  It  is  not  my  pur- 
pose here  to  propose  specific  legal  reforms.  The 
evil  is  far  deeper  than  the  law.  It  lies  in  a  semi- 
pagan  sentiment  which  has  crept  unrecognized  into 
the  American  community.  So  long  as  complaisant 
judges  decree  such  actions  as  these  to  be  cruel 
and  inhuman  treatment,  no  statute  which  the  legis- 
lature can  pass  will  prevent  the  evil.  We  must 
recognize  these  fundamental  truths :  that  marriage 
is  a  divine  ordinance  wrought  into  human  society 
in  the  very  creation  of  man  ;  that  the  family  is  an 
autocracy,  —  that  the  husband  and  wife  are  not 
two  separate  individualities,  joining  hands  for  cer- 
tain special  purposes,  but  are  one  flesh,  a  new  per- 
son ;  and  we  must  recognize  this,  at  least,  that 
nothing  but  the  most  serious  cause  can  justify  sep- 
aration after  marriage  once  made.  We  must  re- 
member that  the  vow  is  not  only  ''  for  sickness 
and  health,"  not  only  "  for  richer  and  poorer,"  but 
also  "  for  better,  for  worse." 


158      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  remedy  for  connubial  infelicities  is  not  fly- 
ing from  them.  The  remedy  for  any  ill  is  not 
flying  from  it.  The  remedy  for  infelicities  in  the 
pastorate  is  not  short  pastorates.  It  is  more  j)a- 
tience  by  the  pastor  toward  the  church,  and  more 
patience  by  the  church  to  Avar  d  the  pastor.  The 
remedy  for  the  friction  which  enters  into  our 
households  is  not  separation  ;  it  is  closer  union.  I 
have  sometimes  heard  the  wife  say  after  a  funeral, 
"  He  never  spoke  a  cross  word,"  and  have  blessed 
the  widow's  short  memory.  A  life  without  a  cross 
word  would  be  a  miracle  of  self-restraint.  There 
are  very  few  married  couples  in  which  each  does 
not  have  to  exercise  patience  with  the  other.  The 
spirit  which  ^iroduces  separation  is  the  spirit  that 
suffers  and  is  cross,  that  seeketh  its  own,  —  the 
spirit  of  suspicion,  not  trust ;  of  discouragement, 
not  hope,  —  the  spirit  that  seeks  to  escape  from 
life's  burdens,  not  that  beareth  all  things.  The 
remedy  for  connubial  infelicity  is  not  sej^aration, 
it  is  closer  union  ;  it  is  the  love  which  beareth 
all  things,  trusteth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things  ;  ^  the  love  which  counts  an- 
other's fault  as  his  burden,  and  bears  it  for  him  ; 
the  love  which  is  never  suspicious,  but  trusting  and 
confiding,  and,  when  confidence  is  wronged  and 
trust  is  no  longer  possible,  still  hopes :  and,  when 
hope  long  deferred  makes  the  heart  sick,  still  en- 
dures ;  a  love  like  the  love  of  Christ,  who,  having 
loved  his  own,  loved  them  unto  the  end. 

^  1  Cor.  xiii.  7. 


CHAPTER   VL 
Christ's  law  of  service. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  considered 
the  relation  of  Christianity  to  democracy,  that  is,  to 
the  development  and  reign  of  the  common  people ; 
to  communism,  or,  more  accurately,  to  property 
rights  and  relations ;  to  socialism,  or,  more  prop- 
erly, to  the  general  social  order  ;  and  to  the  family. 
In  this  and  the  succeeding  clmpter,  I  purpose  to 
consider  more  specifically  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  relation  of  Christianity,  histori- 
cally considered,  to  certain  aspects  of  the  labor 
question. 

What  is  the  labor  question  ? 

Originally,  the  capitalist  owned  the  laborer. 
That  was  slavery.  This  ownership,  in  its  earlier 
and  cruder  forms,  was  absolute.  The  slave  was 
simply  a  chattel,  and  had  no  rights  which  the 
owner  was  bound  to  respect.  He  was  not  as  well 
protected  from  cruelty  as  the  domestic  animal  is 
by  modern  legislation.  He  was  barely  tenant  at 
will  of  his  own  body,  of  which  his  master  was  free 
to  dispossess  him  at  any  time  by  inflicting  death.^ 

When  slavery,  by  gradual  influences  proceeding 

1  See  Lecky's  History  of  European  Morals,  i.  p.  318  ff.,  where 
also  the  favorable  side  of  ancient  slavery  is  given. 


160      CIIRJSriANJTY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

from  Christianity,  was  abolished  in  Europe,  feu- 
dalism took  its .  place.  The  capitalist  owned  the 
land ;  the  laborer  was  attached  to  the  land.  The 
capitalist  owed  the  laborer  protection  from  his 
enemies ;  the  laborer  owed  the  lord  of  the  land 
his  service.  "From  the  king  down  to  the  lowest 
landowner,"  says  Professor  Stubbs,  "  all  were 
bound  together  by  obligation  of  service  and  de- 
fense, —  the  lord  to  protect  his  vassal,  the  vassal 
to  do  service  to  his  lord ;  the  defense  and  service 
being  based  on  and  regulated  by  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  land  held  by  one  of  the  other." 
This  was  an  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the 
laborer,  but  it  certainly  left  much  to  be  desired. 
He  had  no  political  rights ;  held  his  cottage  and 
garden  at  the  will  of  his  master,  or  subject  to  his 
oppression,  and  without  means  of  defense  against 
it.  He  possessed  no  title-deeds  to  his  property, 
nor  were  there  any  adequate  courts  to  which  he 
could  appeal  if  he  were  wronged.^ 

Remnants  of  feudalism  are  still  to  be  found  in 
England,  but  it  has  gradually  given  way  to  the 
capitalistic  or  wages  system.  Under  this  system, 
one  class  of  men  own  the  tools  and  implements  of 
industry ;  another  class  work  with  these  tools.  The 
former  are  called  capitalists,  the  latter  laborers. 
A  great  deal  of  current  political  discussion  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  this  is  a  permanent 
and  necessary  condition.     In  point  of  fact,  it  has 

1  Wm.  Stubbs,  Const.  Hist,  of  England^  vol.  i.  ch.  ix.  §  1>3,  pp. 
252,  436. 


CHEISrS   LAW    OF  SERVICE.  161 

grown  up  almost  wholly  within  a  century.  I  can 
myself  remember  when,  in  the  remoter  parts  of 
New  England,  there  were  still  the  spinning-wheel 
and  the  hand-loom  in  the  farmer's  house ;  when 
the  sheep  were  sheared  and  the  wool  was  sent  to 
the  carding-mill,  and  then  brought  back  and  woven 
and  spun  into  garments.  Now  the  spinning-wheel 
is  banished  from  the  family,  the  hand-loom  is  gone, 
and  the  spinning-wheel  and  the  loom  are  under  the 
roof  of  the  great  factories,  operated  by  a  thousand 
men,  who  own  no  share  whatever  in  the  machin- 
ery which  they  are  using.  In  my  boyhood,  going 
home  from  school,  I  sat  on  the  box  of  the  stage 
with  the  driver,  who  owned,  at  least  in  part,  the 
stage  and  four-horse  team  ;  and  it  was  my  ambition 
as  a  boy  to  be  some  time  a  stage-driver  myself  and 
own  four  splendid  horses.  Now  the  locomotive 
engineer  stands  in  the  cab,  and  carries  many  more 
passengers,  a  great  deal  more  comfortably  and  at 
a  far  greater  rate  of  speed  ;  but  he  does  not  own 
the  locomotive.  The  locomotive  and  the  railroad 
track  are  owned  by  one  set  of  men,  and  operated 
by  quite  another.  Practically,  all  the  tools  and 
implements  of  industry,  except  in  agriculture,  are 
owned  by  one  class,  while  they  are  employed  in 
productive  labor  by  another  class. 

It  is  under  this  capitalistic  system  that  we  have 
seen  one  half  of  the  wealth  of  the  United  States 
pass  into  the  possession  and  under  the  control 
of  one  per  cent,  of  the  poimlation.  A  compara- 
tively small  number  of  persons  control  the  imple- 


162      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

meiits  of  industry  and  possess  the  great  bulk  of  its 
products.  The  many  carry  on  the  industries,  sub- 
ject to  the  will  and  under  the  control  and  direction 
of  the  few.  The  labor  question  is,  What  is  the 
relation  between  these  two  classes,  —  the  working- 
man  who  uses  the  tools,  and  the  capitalist  who 
owns  them? 

It  is  customary,  and  for  purposes  of  philosophi- 
cal discussion  it  is  necessary,  to  draw  sharply  the 
line  between  these  two  classes,  capitalists  and 
laborers.  But,  in  fact,  no  such  sharp  division 
exists.  It  is  true  that,  under  the  wages  system, 
a  comparatively  small  number  of  men  control  the 
tools ;  but,  at  least  in  democratic  America,  a  very 
considerable  and  probably  increasing  number  par- 
ticipate in  the  ownership.  The  total  deposits  in 
banks  and  institutions  for  savings  in  1890-91  ag- 
gregated 12,661,752,961.  The  total  number  of 
depositors  in  the  savings  banks  alone,  for  the  year 
1890,  was  4,297,723,  with  an  average  deposit  of 
§354.80  for  each  depositor.  As  many  of  these  de- 
positors represent  families,  the  proportion  of  wealth- 
owners  to  the  population  is  seen  to  be  large. 


Classes. 

No.  of 
Banks. 

Capital. 

Surplus. 

Undivided 

Profits. 

Deposits. 

2,572 
171 

647 

304 

1,235 

^208,564,841 
79,292,889 

32,106,127 

30,785,458 

$81,110,533 
55,503,845 

142,450,741 
13,400,752 
12,140,622 

$556,037,012 

Loan  Trust  Companies  . . 
Savings  Banks  —  Mutual. 
Savings  Banks  —  Stock . . 

355,331  t.OSO 

i,402,3;;'j.(;(;5 

252,493,477 
94,959,727 

Total     

4,989 

$356,749,315 

$304,624,493 

$2,G61,752,9ul  i 

1  Harper's  Book  of  Facts  for  1890-91. 


CHRISrS   LAW   OF   SERVICE. 


163 


Year. 

Number  of 
Depositors. 

Amount  of 
Deposits. 

Average 

for  each 

Depositor. 

1880 

2,528,749 
4,297,723 

$891,90.1,142 
1,524,844,506 

$352.73 

1890 

354.80 1 

The  money  thus  deposited  is  not  lying  idle ;  it  is 
all  invested,  in  one  form  or  another,  in  tools  and 
implements  of  industry.  It  becomes  itself  a  tool, 
but  the  owner  of  the  tool  rarely  uses  it.  We  hire 
one  another's  tools  with  which  to  do  our  work.  In 
considering  the  labor  question,  we  must  classify 
men  into  laborers  and  capitalists,  though  the  same 
man  may  be  capitalist  in  one  aspect  and  laborer  in 
another. 

The  general  effect  of  Christ's  teaching,  and  of 
human  development  under  its  inspiration,  is  to 
abolish  the  class  distinction  between  capitalist  and 
laborer,  as  other  class  distinctions  have  been  abol- 
ished. The  tendency  of  civilization  is  to  add  to 
the  wealth  and  the  power  of  the  common  people.^ 
And  as  their  wealth  and  power  are  increased  they 
become  capitalists,  either  by  direct  ownership  in 
private  industry,  or  by  corporate  industry  through 
state  action.  The  democracy  of  virtue  and  re- 
ligion, of  education  and  intelligence,  and  of  politi- 
cal power,  is  certain  to  be  followed  eventually  by  a 
democracy  of  wealth,  in  which  the  present  con- 
ditions will,  by  successive  modifications,  be  revo- 
lutionized.    The  laborers  will  become  themselves 

1  Carne^e,  Triumphant  Democracy,  rev.  ed.  1898,  p.  504. 

2  See  ch.  \\.  passim. 


164     CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

the  capitalists,  that  is,  the  owners  of  the  tools  and 
implements  of  industry  :  they  will  control  the  tools 
with  which  they  work,  and  the  industries  which 
they  carry  on  ;  no  longer  will  capital  hire  labor  in 
the  cheapest  market ;  labor  will  hire  capital ;  the 
man  will  control,  not  the  money.  Meanwhile, 
however,  the  specific  labor  question  of  our  time 
is.  What  is  the  relation  between  these  two  classes, 
the  tool-owners  and  the  tool-users,  the  capitalists 
and  the  laborers  ?  So  far  as  this  is  a  moral  ques- 
tion, I  believe  that  it  is  answered  by  two  funda- 
mental principles,  —  Christ's  law  of  service  and 
Christ's  standard  of  values.  His  law  of  service  is 
the  subject  of  our  consideration  in  this  chapter. 

Paganism  has  always  discredited  labor.  Slavery 
of  itself  discredited  labor  and  honored  idleness. 
Thus  paganism,  born  of  savage  selfishness  and 
love  of  ease,  has  corrupted  public  opinion  almost 
to  the  present  time ;  indeed,  the  relics  of  it  are 
still  to  be  found  even  in  industrious  America.  In 
England,  until  a  very  recent  period,  a  man  might 
walk  the  deck  of  a  man-of-war  as  a  midshipman 
and  be  an  honored  gentleman  ;  but  if  he  drove  a 
bolt  into  its  place  to  make  the  man-of-war,  he  was 
a  dishonored  mechanic.  He  might  ride  his  horse 
over  a  farmer's  field  and  destroy  the  harvest,  hunt- 
ing a  fox,  and  belong  to  the  aristocracy  ;  but  if  he 
rode  his  horse  from  field  to  field,  to  superintend 
the  sowing  of  the  seed  or  the  gathering  of  the 
harvest,  he  was  nothing  but  a  farmer.  There 
were  three  vocations  open  to  a  gentleman's  son : 


CHRIST'S    LAW   OF  SERVICE.  165 

he  could  be  a  soldier,  a  preacher,  or  a  politician. 
But  if  he  added  to  his  nation's  material  wealth  by 
productive  industry,  he  could  not  be  a  gentleman. 
This  spirit  crossed  the  ocean  to  America  with  the 
Cavaliers.  The  immigrants  to  New  England  and 
New  York,  sons  of  the  English  yeoman  and  sons 
of  the  industrious  Hollander,  brought  with  them 
to  the  Northern  States  respect  for  productive  toil ; 
but  the  immigrants  to  Virginia  and  the  South, 
sons  of  the  Cavalier,  looked  down  upon  industry 
as  their  fathers  had  done  before  them.  Thus  the 
South  inherited  its  scorn  for  free  labor ;  slavery 
fitted  well  with  that  spirit  and  intensified  it. 

But  there  is  one  people  in  the  world  which, 
throughout  all  its  history,  has  honored  industry,  — 
the  Jewish  nation.^  Its  ancient  laws  discourag-ed 
slavery  and  war,  encouraged  and  honored  honest 
toil.  Men  have  imagined  that  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures affirm  that  God  imposed  labor  on  man  as 
penalty  for  sin.  This  is  a  mistake.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  said  that  when  God  made  Adam  he 
put  him  into  a  garden  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it. 
It  was  not  toil  —  it  was  thorns  and  thistles,  that  is, 
needless  obstacles,  and  the  care  and  worry  which 
they  beget  —  which  sin  brought  into  the  world. 
Throughout  Israel's  history  labor  is  honored. 
Abraham  is  a  farmer,  Moses  a  herdsman,  David 
a  shepherd  boy.  In  the  glowing  picture  of  the 
future  golden  age  which  awaits  the  world,  the 
spears  are  not  laid  aside,  but  beaten  into  pruning- 
1  See  ch.  i.  p.  6. 


166      CHRISTTANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

hooks;  nor  the  swords  hung  ujd  ingloriously  to 
rust  away,  but  converted  into  plowshares.  The 
benediction  of  God  is  bestowed  on  the  laborer. 
The  Hebrew  painter  takes  his  brush  to  paint  a 
picture  of  ideal  womanhood.  This  is  what  he 
puts  upon  his  canvas  :  ^  — 

''  She  seeketh  wool  and  flax,  and  worketh  wilHngly 
with  her  hands.  She  is  Hke  the  merchant's  shijDS :  she 
bringeth  her  food  from  afar.  She  riseth  also  while  it 
is  yet  night,  and  giveth  meat  to  her  household  and  a 
portion  to  her  maidens.  She  considereth  a  field  and 
buyeth  it;  with  the  fruit  of  her  hands  she  planteth  a 
vineyard.  She  girdeth  her  loins  with  strength  and 
strengtheneth  her  arms.  She  perceiveth  that  her  mer- 
chandise is  good :  her  candle  goetli  not  out  by  night. 
She  layeth  her  hands  to  the  spindle,  and  her  hands  hold 
the  distaff." 

Into  this  nation,  educated  in  and  centred  around 
the  honorableness  of  toil,  Christ  was  born.  And 
he  was  born  into  a  peasant  family.  He  is  known 
in  history  as  the  "  Son  of  the  Carpenter ; "  he 
worked  at  his  father's  bench  ;  he  called  men  of 
toil  and  labor  about  him  to  be  his  disciples.  The 
church  was,  in  the  inception  of  it,  a  church  of 
hard-working  men.  Its  first  apostles  were  fish- 
ermen ;  its  greatest  apostle  was  a  tent-maker. 
Through  all  the  early  primitive  Christianity,  it 
was  built  up  out  of  hard-working  men.  It  was  a 
peasant  church.  It  might  also  be  called,  without 
exaggeration,  a  workingtnan's  organization.  In  his 
^  Proverbs  xxxi.  10-31. 


CHRISrS   LAW    OF   SERVICE.  107 

teaching,  Christ  emphasized  the  honorableness  of 
labor.  He  declared  that  men  were  to  serve  one 
another,  and  he  was  greatest  who  served  best. 
Not  by  destruction  is  honor  won,  nor  by  idleness 
while  some  one  else  works  for  us,  but  by  produc- 
tive labor.  Even  the  Messiah,  he  said,  the  Son 
of  Man,  who  has  come  to  set  the  world  free,  —  even 
he  has  come  to  be  the  world's  servant ;  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister.^ 

This  is  very  alphabetic,  very  simple,  yet  very 
radical.  It  is  not  a  mere  moral  apothegm,  it  is  a 
scientific  principle,  that  labor  alone  is  honorable, 
and  idleness  unenforced  always  dishonorable.  We 
brought  nothing  into  this  world,^  say  the  Scrip- 
tures, —  how  can  we  get  anything  ?  We  cannot 
live  unless  we  have  clothes,  shelter,  food.  Only 
in  one  of  four  ways  can  we  get  these  things  :  first, 
we  may  receive  them  as  a  willing  gift  from  the 
producer ;  second,  we  may  appropriate  them  for 
ourselves  directly  from  nature ;  third,  we  may 
take  them  from  the  possession  of  the  producer, 
without  giving  an  equivalent ;  fourth,  we  may 
produce  them  by  our  own  industry.  These  are 
the  four  ways  of  getting  anything,  and  there  is 
no  other. 

The  community  is  full  —  the  communities  of 
Europe  fuller  than  America  —  of  men  who  are 
living  on  other  men's  industry.  They  are  living 
by  gifts.     Some   of  them   are  poor  and  some  of 

1  Matthew  xx.  28. 

2  Job  i.  21  ;  Eccles.  v.  15  ;  1  Tim.  vi.  7. 


168      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

them  are  rich,  but  they  are  doing  nothing.  The 
man  of  full  age,  good  body,  and  fair  capacity,  who 
is  not  producing  as  much  as  he  is  spending,  —  the 
best  thing  we  can  say  of  him  is  that  he  is  living 
on  charity.  The  man  or  woman  able  to  add  to 
the  world's  wealth  and .  adding  nothing  to  it,  mate- 
rially, intellectually,  or  morally,  must  be  counted 
among  the  beggars,  however  housed  and  clothed 
by  the  labors  of  others. 

"  There  are  worse  things,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  than 
heavy  labor,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  is  worse  than 
heavy  labor,  and  that  is  idle  wealth.  In  vain  a  man 
escapes  from  the  destiny  of  hard  work,  even  hard  work 
with  some  degree  of  poverty,  to  attain  to  wealth,  if  that 
wealth  is  to  bring  vith  it  the  curse,  the  unmitigated 
curse,  of  idleness  and  self-indulgence.  The  laborer 
has  his  legitimate,  his  necessary,  his  honorable  and 
honored  place  in  God's  creation ;  but  in  all  God's 
creation  there  is  no  place  appointed  for  the  idle  wealthy 
man.  Wealth  can  only  be  redeemed  from  danger  by 
one  law  and  one  course,  and  that  Is  by  associating  it 
with  active  duty  to  the  honor  of  God  and  benefit  of 
mankind."  ^ 

Give  heed,  you  who  think  you  have  no  need 
to  work  because  your  rich  fathers  worked  before 
you ;  who  imagine  that  a  life  is  honorable  which 
is  spent  in  using  what  other  men  have  produced  ; 
who  go  through  school,  academy,  and  college,  com- 
ing out  with  the  ripened  fruits  of  culture  and  all 

1  W.  E.  Gladstone,  Speech  on  Labor  at  Cheshire,  England, 
Nov.  28,  1891,  reported  in  London  Times,  Nov.  30,  1891. 


CHIi/SrS   LAW    OF   SERVICE.  169 

the  advantages  which  wealth  and  society  give,  but 
never  imagine  that  you  are  called  upon  to  give 
back  to  the  world,  in  some  form  or  other,  what 
God  has  given  to  you.  Every  man  is  bound,  by 
the  gifts  of  health,  intelligence,  capacity,  and  op- 
portunity which  God  has  given  him,  to  put  into 
the  world  at  least  as  much  as  he  takes  out  of  it. 
Every  man  should  be  inspired  by  a  noble  ambi- 
tion to  leave  the  world  richer,  better,  and  nobler 
for  his  having  lived  in  it ;  we  are  not  to  forget 
that  even  the  invalid  should  by  his  suffering  so 
teach  the  world  patience,  as  to  be  a  produce^  of 
wealth  of  spirit. 

The  second  man  takes  out  of  the  common  stock, 
that  is,  out  of  the  coal  ot  oil  or  lumber  or  produc- 
tive juices  with  which  God  has  stored  the  earth.^ 
Whether  the  earth  and  its  contents  ought  to  be 
owned  and  managed  by  the  entire  community, 
whether  it  is  a  proper  subject  for  personal  prop- 
erty, or  should  be  treated  as  common  property, 
is  a  question  not  necessary  here  to  consider.  Nor 
that  other  question,  whether  the  community  should 
by  law  put  some  limitations  upon  the  powers  of 
men  into  whose  possession  and  under  whose  con- 
trol this  common  stock  has  fallen.  It  is  certain 
on  the  one  hand  that  men  who  discover,  unearth, 
and  render  available  this  reservoired  wealth  of 
the  land,  do  so  by  some  form  of  industry,  intel- 
lectual or  muscular,  or  both  combined;  and  it  is 

^  For  some  estimate  of  the  value  of  this  species  of  property,  see 
ch.  iii.  p.  82  ff. 


170      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

equally  certain  that  no  one  of  them  is  living  in 
accordance  with  Christ's  law  of  service  unless 
what  he  is  giving  to  the  community  in  illuminar 
tion,  in  warmth,  in  houses,  in  some  advantage  of 
diffused  wealth,  is  worth  at  least  as  much  as  the 
world  is  giving  to  him  in  what  he  terms  profits. 
If  he  is  using  his  skill  to  make  profitable  to  the 
world  the  world's  otherwise  useless  stock  of  coal 
or  oil  or  lumber,  he  is  an  honest  man.  If  he  is 
using  his  skill  to  get  as  much  of  it  as  he  can  for 
himself,  and  to  give  as  little  as  he  can  to  the  com- 
munity, he  is  a  dishonest  man. 

The  third  man  takes  from  another  man's  pocket 
without  giving  any  equivalent.  This  he  may  do 
in  either  one  of  three  ways,  —  by  violence,  then 
he  is  a  robber ;  by  stealth,  then  he  is  a  thief ;  or 
by  gambling.  That  is,  he  may  make  this  bargain 
with  another  man  :  We  will  play  a  game  of  chance  ; 
if  you  win  you  shall  have  my  dollar,  and  give  me 
nothing  for  it ;  if  I  win  I  shall  have  your  dollar, 
and  give  you  nothing  for  it.  The  gambler  is  not 
a  robber,  for  he  does  not  take  his  neighbor's  wealth 
by  force.  He  is  not  always  a  thief,  for  he  does 
not  always  take  it  by  stealth.  But  he  takes  from 
his  neighbor  without  giving  him  an  equivalent, 
and  that  is  dishonest.  He  may  do  this  with  cards, 
with  roulette,  with  stocks,  with  grain,  or  with 
pork.  The  method  of  his  gambling  makes  no 
difference  in  the  morality  of  the  transaction.  The 
desire  to  get  something  for  nothing  is  a  dishonest 
desire ;  the  endeavor  to  get  from  another  what  he 


CHRIST'S   LAW   OF   SERVICE.  171 

possesses,  without  giving  him  an  equivalent  there- 
for, is  an  endeavor  to  do  a  dishonest  thing.  No 
transaction  is  honest,  according  to  the  standard  of 
Christ's  law  of  service,  which  is  not,  in  the  object 
and  intent  of  it,  beneficial  to  both  parties. 

Public  sentiment  in  America  forbids  gambling 
with  cards ;  public  law  forbids  roulette,  and  has 
suppressed  the  lottery.  But  gambling  in  stocks 
and  grain  the  law  permits,  and  public  sentiment 
practically  sanctions.  I  do  not  condemn  all  the 
transactions  of  the  stock  and  produce  exchanges. 
On  the  contrary,  these  exchanges  appear  to  me 
indispensable  to  the  nation's  prosperity.  I  do  not 
condemn  all  dealings  in  futures.  Every  man  who 
subscribes  to  a  paper,  sending  in  his  subscription 
price  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  deals  in  a 
future,  for  he  buys  what  does  not  exist  when  he 
makes  the  purchase.  I  do  not  condemn  all  op- 
tions. An  option,  as  the  preparation  for  a  hona 
fide  business  transaction,  is  as  legitimate  as  it  is 
common.  When  a  man  pays  a  steamship  com- 
pany ten  per  cent,  of  the  passage-money  to  retain 
a  state-room  for  him  until  the  summer,  and  agrees 
to  forfeit  the  ten  per  cent,  if  he  does  not  take  the 
room,  he  is  buying  an  option.  But  options  which 
are,  as  many  of  them  are,  gambling  operations,  — 
a  mere  bet  on  the  future  value  of  imaginary  prop- 
erty, —  are  essentially  vicious,  because  they  are  en- 
deavors to  get  something  for  nothing;  and  this 
endeavor  is  not  made  less  dishonest  because  both 
parties   to  the   transaction  are   possessed   by  the 


172      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

same  dishonest  desire.  A  dealing  in  futures,  such 
as  Senator  Washburn  ^  describes  in  the  following- 
terms,  can  be  justified  by  no  ethical  principle,  in 
no  court  of  conscience.  In  such  a  transaction 
there  is  no  desire  on  the  part  of  either  person 
involved  to  render  a  service,  either  to  the  other 
party  or  to  the  community  :  — 

''  A  sells  a  million  bushels  of  wheat,  if  you  please,  to 
B,  to  be  delivered  next  October.  A  does  not  own  a 
bushel  of  wheat,  never  has  had  a  bushel,  and  does  not 
expect  to  have ;  and  B,  who  has  made  the  jDurchase, 
never  expects  that  A  will  deliver  the  wlieat  to  him  at 
the  time  specified  in  the  contract :  but  on  the  expiration 
of  the  contract  the  two  gentlemen  make  a  settlement  on 
the  basis  of  the  price  that  wheat  may  bear  at  the  time 
specified.  There  is  no  ownership  of  property ;  there  is 
no  change  of  property  ;  there  is  no  legitimate  transac- 
tion. It  is  simply  a  bet  on  the  part  of  the  two  opera- 
tors as  to  what  the  price  of  wheat  shall  be  at  the  time 
designated.  So  that  this,  as  in  the  case  of  'options,' 
simply  becomes  a  wager  as  to  tlie  price  of  property  at  a 
given  time  in  the  future,  and  finally  resolves  itself  into 
a  bet,  and  nothing  more." 

Such  gambling  as  this  is  more  pernicious  than 
gambling  with  cards  or  at  the  roulette  table,  be- 

1  For  the  facts  respecting-  stock  gambling-  here  stated,  I  am 
indebted  to  the  speech  of  Hon.  W.  D.  Washburn,  of  Minnesota, 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  July  11  and  23,  1802,  on  Options 
and  Futures.  His  definition  of  options  is  as  follows :  ' '  They 
(options)  do  not  contemplate  the  delivery  or  receiving-  of  property, 
and  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  an  instance  on  record  Avhere 
aijy  property  passed ;  but  it  is  simply  a  bet  on  what  the  value  of 
that  property  may  be  at  a  given  time  in  the  future.'' 


VHRJtiTS   LAW    OF   SERVICE.  173 

cause  it  affects  great  classes  in  the  community  who 
have  no  part  in  the  transaction.  Senator  Wash- 
burn has  shown  that,  while  the  average  acreage  in 
wheat  from  1885  to  1891  was  almost  exactly  the 
same  as  from  1880  to  1884,  and  while  population 
was  steadily  increasing,  so  that  the  demand  for 
food  products  was  growing  and  the  supply  of  food 
products  was  stationary,  nevertheless  the  price  of 
wheat  fell  between  1880  and  1895  from  one  dollar 
and  forty-five  cents  to  ninety-five  cents  a  bushel. 
And  he  gives  abundant  authority  for  the  belief  that 
this  was  due  to  fictitious  sales  of  imaginary  wheat 
in  New  York  and  Chicago.  In  1892  the  "  Chicago 
Tribune"  said  editorially:  "The  situation  has 
shaped  itself  to  this  extent,  that,  if  Western 
Europe  wants  wheat  for  the  next  four  months, 
there  is  no  place  except  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the 
United  States  where  it  can  be  obtained."  But 
the  influences  of  the  Chicago  "  bear  ring "  broke 
down  the  price  of  wheat  in  the  United  States  and 
carried  the  market  price  throughout  the  world  down 
with  it.  The  real  sales  in  these  great  produce  ex- 
changes are  apparently  insignificant  as  compared 
with  the  fictitious  ones.  In  New  York  on  a  single 
day  six  thousand  bushels  of  wheat  were  sold  for 
actual  delivery,  and  forty-four  million  bushels  of 
imaginary  wheat  for  future  delivery  in  gambling 
transactions.  Senator  Washburn  gives  it  as  his 
opinion  that  at  least  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the 
sales  in  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade  are  sales  of  a 
fictitious  character,  "  where  no  property  is  actually 


174      CHliJ^TIANJTY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

owned ;  no  projierty  sold  or  delivered,  or  expected 
to  be  delivered,  but  simply  wagers  or  bets  as  to 
what  that  property  may  be  worth  at  a  designated 
time  in  the  future."  It  does  not  come  within  the 
province  of  this  chapter  to  consider  the  question 
whether  the  law  proposed  in  Congress  for  putting 
an  end  to  these  gambling  transactions  was  consti- 
tutional, or,  if  constitutional,  was  judicious.  It  is 
enough  to  point  out  their  essentially  immoral  char- 
acter, their  violation  of  Christ's  law  of  service,  the 
corrupt  desire  that  is  the  inspiration  of  them, — to 
get  something  for  nothing,  —  the  commercial  in- 
jury they  inflict  upon  the  country  in  affecting  the 
values  of  honest  owners  and  j)roducers,  and  the 
moral  injuries  they  inflict  upon  the  country  by 
exciting  in  young  men  an  eager  and  passionate 
haste  to  get  rich.  There  is  only  one  honest  way 
to  get  rich,  — the  production  of  wealth  by  honest 
industry.  ^ 

All  gambling  transactions,  however  cloaked  and 
disguised,  are  revealed  when  brought  to  the  touch- 
stone of  Christ's  law  of  service,  namely,  we  come 
into  the  world  naked ;  we  have  nothing ;  we  must 
not  take  from  life  without  adding  something  to  it ; 
we  must  contribute  to  the  world  at  least  as  much 
as  we  receive  from  it ;  we  ought  to  be  ambitious  to 
contribute  more,  to  leave  the  world  wiser,  richer, 

^  See  also,  on  this  general  subject,  J.  P.  Quinn,  "  Fools  of  For- 
tune," part  iii.  eh.  ii. ;  G.  H.  Stutfield,  "Modern  Gambling-  and 
Gambling  Laws."  Nineteenth  Century.,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  840,  November, 
1889;  and  W.  E.  Bear,  "Market  Gambling,"  Contemporary  Re- 
view, vol.  Ixv.  p.  781,  June,  1894. 


CHEISrS    LAW    OF   SERVICE.  175 

nobler,  because  we  have  lived  in  it.  Labor  is 
honorable,  service  is  honorable ;  to  live  without 
labor,  without  serving,  is  dishonorable. 

There  are  a  variety  of  ways  in  which  men  add  to 
the  world's  wealth,  —  that  is,  to  its  life,  physical, 
intellectual,  moral.  In  the  natural  order,  the  first 
thing  is  to  get  out  of  the  earth  what  the  earth  con- 
tains for  the  service  of  man.  This  is  the  work 
of  the  agriculturist,  the  miner,  the  lumberman. 
These  men  are  making  available  to  the  community 
the  reservoired  resources  of  the  globe.  But  one 
cannot  advantageously  eat  raw  wheat,  nor  live  in 
trees,  nor  use  iron  in  the  ore  for  tools,  nor  com- 
fortably wear  the  skins  of  animals.  The  wheat 
must  be  turned  into  bread,  the  trees  builded  into 
houses,  the  iron  fashioned  into  tools,  the  wool  spun 
and  woven  into  garments.  Thus  the  second  thing 
is  to  turn  what  the  earth  gives  us  into  forms  use- 
ful for  our  service.  This  is  mechanic  art.  In  one 
region  there  is  plenty  of  food,  in  another  none  ;  in 
one  forests,  in  another  timberless  plains  and  val- 
leys ;  in  one  the  iron  mine,  in  another  the  mill- 
stream  or  the  coal  which  furnishes  power  for  the 
factory.  The  food  must  be  transported  from  the 
Western  prairie  to  the  Eastern  city,  the  timber 
from  the  Michigan  forest  to  the  Illinois  farm,  the 
iron  or  the  copper  from  the  shores  of  Lake  Su- 
perior to  the  furnaces  of  Pennsylvania.  Thus 
comes  into  play  the  third  great  service  to  the  com- 
munity, transportation.  China  and  India  suffer 
great  famines  unknown   in    America,  chiefly   be- 


176     CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

cause  they  are  not  equipped  with  great  railroad 
corporations  to  carry  suj)plies  from  the  regions 
where  food  is  abundant  to  the  regions  which  are 
famine-stricken.  When  these  supplies  are  brought 
to  the  communities  who  need  them,  there  must 
be  individuals  to  carry  this  work  of  distribution 
further.  These  are  called  middlemen.  It  is  pop- 
ular in  certain  quarters  to  condemn  the  middle- 
men, but  they  are  essential  to  public  well-being. 
As  modern  water-works  gather  the  water  into 
reservoirs,  send  it  by  means  of  great  mains 
throughout  the  city,  from  which  again  it  is  dis- 
tributed in  smaller  and  still  smaller  pipes  until 
it  reaches  the  rooms  in  the  private  houses,  where 
it  can  be  drawn  by  opening  a  faucet,  so  commerce 
takes  nature's  supplies,  carries  them  to  great 
centres  of  population,  where  retail  trade  takes 
them  up,  distributing  them  to  individual  house- 
holds. The  middleman  is  the  faucet  without 
which  the  water  would  never  be  available  in  the 
home.  We  have,  however,  other  needs  than  ma- 
terial ones.  Men  will  sicken,  there  must  be 
skilled  physicians ;  men  wdll  not  understand  their 
right  relations  to  one  another,  there  must  be  law- 
yers to  counsel  them  ;  there  are  criminals,  and 
there  must  be  governors,  soldiers,  policemen,  to 
protect.  There  must  be  teachers  to  instruct, 
preachers  and  poets  to  inspire,  artists  and  authors 
and  musicians  to  minister  to  the  gestlietic  and 
literary  taste.  There  will  be  homes,  and  there 
must  be  wives  and   mothers  who  are  not  turning 


CHRISTS    LAW    OF   SERVICE.  177 

the  spiniiing-vvheel,  nor  driving  the  loom,  nor 
plowing  the  field,  nor  adding  to  the  material 
wealth  by  their  industry,  but  who  are  adding  to 
spiritual  wealth  by  their  patience,  their  fidelity, 
their  love.  All  these  are  adding  to  the  world's 
wealth.  None  of  these  are  honestly  fulfilling  their 
place  in  life  unless  they  are  adding  to  the  world's 
wealth.  The  true  wife  lives  that  she  may  make 
home  happier  and  better.  The  preacher  ministers 
in  the  pulpit  that  he  may  elevate  and  enrich  the 
moral  culture  of  the  community ;  the  artist  and 
the  musician,  that  he  may  serve  man  through  the 
subtle  ministries  of  art  and  music  ;  the  soldier  and 
the  statesman,  that  he  may  protect  the  community 
while  all  this  work  is  going  on  ;  the  lawyer,  that 
he  may  direct  the  will  of  the  community  in  right 
channels,  and  make  it  strong  for  righteousness ; 
and  the  tradesman,  the  merchant,  the  manufac- 
turer, the  farmer,  that  he  may  both  create  and 
distribute  equably  that  material  wealth  on  the 
production  and  equable  distribution  of  which  the 
moral  well-being  of  the  community  depends.  In 
all  this  work  hand  and  brain  must  cooperate. 
Labor  is  not  all  hand-labor.  An  American  humor- 
ist has  said  with  great  truth,  "  In  the  sweat  of 
thy  brow  shalt  thou  eat  bread,  but  some  men 
sweat  outside  and  some  men  inside."  The  brain 
has  need  of  the  hand,  and  the  hand  of  the  brain. 
Both  are  entitled  to  their  share  of  the  world's 
products,  but  this  one  fundamental  truth  remains : 
the  world  has  just  so  much  as  we  put  into  it ;  no 


178      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

more.  If  we  do  not  by  our  consecrated  use  of 
hand  or  head  or  heart,  by  our  personal  activity  or 
our  wise  direction  of  the  activity  of  others,  by  our 
serving  or  our  suffering,  endeavor  to  add  to  the 
world's  wealth  —  material,  intellectual,  or  spir- 
itual —  at  least  as  much  as  we  have  taken  out  of 
it,  we  belong  in  the  category  of  the  beggars,  the 
thieves,  and  the  gamblers. 

The  first  principle,  then,  is  respect  for  labor, 
and  respect  for  each  other's  labor ;  respect  by  the 
man  who  works  with  his  brain  for  the  man  who 
works  with  his  hand,  and  respect  by  the  man 
who  works  with  his  hand  for  the  man  who  works 
with  his  brain,  —  mutual  respect.  When  we  have 
thoroughly  learned  this  one  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, that  to  destroy  is  not  honorable  and  to  pro- 
duce is,  that  the  glory  of  the  nation  lies  in  its 
production,  that  the  glory  of  life  lies  in  adding  to 
the  wealth  of  life,  —  its  material,  its  intellectual, 
its  spiritual  wealth,  —  we  shall  have  learned  one 
great  underlying  lesson.  Until  we  have  learned 
this,  all  other  learning  is  in  vain,  for  this  is  the 
foundation.  The  greatest  of  all  is  the  servant  of 
all.  We  believe  this  in  the  church  :  the  minister 
is  the  servant  of  the  congregation.  We  believe  it 
in  politics :  the  President  is  the  servant  of  the 
people.  We  shall  not  get  to  the  Christian  basis 
of  industry  until  we  come  to  recognize  in  industry 
also  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  independence, 
and  that  the  greatest  and  the  richest  and  the 
strongest  is  great  only  as  he  is  the  servant  of  the 
weak  and  the  poor. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
Christ's  standard  of  values. 

Christ  furnishes  his  standard  of  values  in  the 
question,  "  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat,  and  the 
body  than  raiment?"  To  that  question  there  can 
be  but  one  answer.  The  life  is  more  than  meat, 
and  the  body  is  more  than  raiment.  Things  are 
made  for  men,  not  men  for  things ;  success  is  to  be 
measured  by  the  development  of  character,  not  by 
the  accumulations  of  wealth. 

Though  this  is  a  self-evident  proposition,  it  is 
practically  denied,  and  has  been  from  the  begin- 
ning of  history.  The  old  political  economy,  if  it 
did  not  openly  deny,  certainly  entirely  ignored  it ; 
declared  itself  concerned  simply  with  wealth,  and 
with  men  simply  as  wealth-producers.  "  Political 
economy,"  says  John  Stuart  Mill,^  "  considers  man- 
kind as  occupied  solely  in  acquiring  and  consuming 
wealth."  It  is  true  that  he  denies  that  man  is  ever 
solely  so  occupied ;  but  political  economy,  accord- 
ing to  him,  regards  man  only  in  the  aspect  of  a  pro- 
ducer of  wealth ;  and  yet  it  is  supposed  that  it  is  po- 
litical economy  which  teaches  the  relations  between 

2  J.  S.  Mill,  Essays  on  Some  Unsettled  Questions  in  Political 
Economy.  Essay  v.  p.  137,  ff. 


180      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

labor  and  capital.  Its  standard  of  values  is  wholly 
material :  it  formerly  regarded  that  the  best  system 
which  accumulated  wealth  the  most  rapidly ;  it  can 
hardly  even  now  be  said  to  have  proceeded  any 
farther  to  a  more  spiritual  conception  than  to  add 
that  the  best  system  will  also  distribute  wealth  the 
most  equably.  The  effect  of  industrial  methods  on 
the  individual  man  it  does  not  consider  ;  whether 
it  is  making  him  wiser  and  better,  nobler  and 
happier,  it  does  not  inquire,  —  certainly  did  not  in- 
quire. It  is  only  within  recent  years  that  economic 
reformers  have  affirmed  that  political  economy, 
in  considering  the  science  of  wealth,  must  consider 
it  as  related  to  the  development  and  maintenance 
of  society,  must  deal  with  man  as  an  intellectual 
and  moral  being,  —  must,  in  a  word,  be  ethical.^ 

The  practical  standard  of  American  life  is  more 
in  harmony  with  the  old  than  witli  the  new  23oliti- 
cal  economy.  He  who  has  made  a  fortune  we 
regard  successful ;  he  who  has  lost  a  fortune  we 
say  has  failed.  The  common  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, what  is  a  man  worth,  is  given  in  dollars  and 
cents.  Not  only  commercial  but  intellectual  under- 
takings are  measured  by  the  money  standard.  The 
newspaper  which  can  affirm  that  it  has  the  largest 
circulation,  and  the  greatest  amount  of  advertising, 
publishes  these  facts  as  the  evidence  of  its  success. 

1  F.  A.  Walker,  The  Wages  System ;  J.  B.  Clark,  Philosophy  of 
Wealth  ;  R.  T.  Ely,  Elements  of  Pol.  Econ. ;  Professor  Ingrahani, 
Encyc.  Brit.^  art.  "  Pol.  Econ."  See,  also,  writings  of  Laveleye, 
Wagner,  and  Gide. 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  181 

Whether  it  is  promoting  the  moral  and  intellectual 
life  of  its  subscribers,  whether  its  advertisements 
are  of  things  which  aid  or  hinder  that  life,  are 
questions  scarcely  considered.  Colleges  and  uni- 
versities are  often  popularly  measured  in  the  same 
way.  Wiiat  is  the  college  endowment  ?  How  large 
are  its  buildings  ?  How  much  money  has  it  in  its 
treasury  ?  Balliol  College,  in  England,  limits  the 
number  of  its  students,  and  takes  only  "  honor 
men."  Is  there  any  analogous  college  in  America  ? 
If  so,  I  have  never  heard  of  it.  Even  churches  are 
measured  by  this  material  standard.  Are  its  pews 
all  rented  ?  Does  it  pay  a  good  price  to  its  minis- 
ter ?  What  does  its  music  cost  ?  What  is  the 
wealth  represented  in  the  pews  upon  its  centre  aisle  ? 
Even  ministers  talk  with  one  another  of  a  "  aood 
place,"  meaning  thereby,  not  a  place  where  the  great- 
est good  can  be  done,  but  where  the  greatest  social 
and  material  advantages  can  be  enjoyed.  States- 
men and  journalists  measure  the  nation  by  the  same 
method.  Mr.  Blaine  told  the  Americans  a  few 
years  ago  that  the  wealth  of  America  had  increased 
from  fourteen  thousand  millions  to  forty-four  thou- 
sand millions,  and  this  statement  was  given  as  the 
evidence  of  the  nation's  prosperity.  Andrew  Car- 
negie, in  "Triumphant  Democracy,"  ^  gives  in  suc- 

1   Triumphant  Democracy:  Sixty   Years'  March  of  the  Republic, 
revised  edition,  based  on  the  census  of  1890,  by  Andrew  Carnegie. 
In  oO  years,  from  1860  to  1890,  the  increase  has  been :  — 
In  population,  99.2  per  cent.,  31,44;j,o21  to  62,622,250. 
In  value  of  land,  fences,  and  buildings,  97.29  per  cent.,  from 
$6,645,045,007  (est.)  to  $1:],  11 0,08 1,884. 


182      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

cessive  chapters,  as  chief  among  the  evidences  of 
democracy's  triumph,  its  growth  in  wealth,  —  its 
increase  in  thirty  years,  1860-1890,  of  nearly  100 
per  cent,  in  land,  fences,  and  buildings ;  of  123  per 
cent,  in  farm  implements  and  machinery  ;  of  122 
per  cent,  in  live  stock :  its  increase  in  the  products 
of  manufactures  from  a  little  less  than  two  thou- 
sand millions  to  a  little  less  than  nine  thousand 
millions ;  of  the  assets  of  its  railroads  from  a  little 
less  than  two  thousand  millions  to  a  little  over  ten 
thousand  millions.  He  teU  us  that  the  United 
States  has  produced  one  third  of  the  gold  output 
of  the  whole  world,  and  that  in  ten  years  the  United 
States  has  built  on  an  average  sixteen  thousand 
miles  of  railroad  each  year  (enough  to  go  two 
thirds  around  the  globe).  We  are  told  that  private 
capital,  without  any  proclamation,  has  built  in  a 
single  year  more  miles  of  railroad  than  Russia  is 
proposing  to  build  in  its  famous  railroad  from  the 
Siberian  frontier  to  the  Pacific  coast.     These  facts 

Value  of  farm  implements  and  machinery,  12:j.47  percent.,  from 

$246,118,141  (est.)  to  $555,000,000. 
Value  of  live  stock  on  farm,  122.04  per  cent.,  from  $1,089,329,- 

915  (est.)  to  $2,418,766,028. 
Manufactures :  capital   invested,  from  $1,009,855,715  (est.)  to 

$4,600,000,000. 
Value  of  products,  $1,855,861,676  (est.)  to  $8,700,000,000. 
Steam  railroads :  miles,  28,920  (est.)  to  $163,597. 
Steam  railroads:  assets  $1,867,248,720   (est.)  to  $10,278,835,- 

746. 
Assessed  valuation  of  real  estate  and  personal  property,  $12,- 

084,560,005  to  $24,651,585,465. 
It  is,  however,  due  to  Mr.  Carneg-ie  to  say  that  he  does  not  pre- 
sent these  facts  as  the  onlv  evidence  of  the  triumph  of  democracy. 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  183 

—  the  amount  of  our  corn  crop  and  our  cotton  crop 
and  our  manufactured  products,  and  our  railroad- 
building,  and  the  increase  of  our  general  wealth 
from  fourteen  thousand  millions  to  forty-four 
thousand  millions  —  are  popularly  regarded  as  the 
evidence  of  the  greatness  of  our  nation.  The  tests 
are  material  tests. 

Christ  repudiates  all  such  tests.  The  true  test 
is  character.  The  railroads,  the  shipping,  the 
banks,  the  gold,  the  corn  crop,  the  cotton  crop,  are 
for  men.  The  question  is,  What  sort  of  men  are 
we  making? 

But  he  says  more  than  that.  Political  economy 
defends  itself  in  putting  the  material  standard 
first,  for,  it  is  said,  we  must  make  money  before 
we  can  spend  it.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  attain 
material  prosperity.  When  we  have  once  got  our 
money,  then  we  may  build  schools  and  churclies, 
print  newspapers  and  books,  serve  the  spiritual 
and  intellectual  ends  of  mankind;  but  first  get 
we  money.  Christ  says,  Seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you.     Character  comes  first. 

When  character  has  been  produced,  when  men 
of  integrity,  of  uprightness,  of  a  truly  divine  na- 
ture, have  been  developed,  wealth  will  naturally 
follow.  Wealth  first,  man  afterwards,  says  politi- 
cal economy.  Man  first,  wealth  afterwards,  says 
Christ.  Wealth  the  standard  of  value,  says  poli- 
tical economy.  Man  the  standard  of  value,  says 
Christ.i 

1  See  ch,  iv.,  p.  124  S. 


184      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

All  things  in  life  are  to  be  measured  by  this 
standard,  —  Life  more  than  meat,  the  body  more 
than  raiment.  By  this  we  are  to  measure  religion 
and  religious  institutions.  Not  that  community  is 
the  most  religious  which  has  the  most  splendid 
cathedrals,  the  most  gorgeous  ritual,  the  most 
beautiful  music,  but  that  which  has  the  best  men. 
It  is  not  in  Italy,  with  its  splendid  St.  Peter's ;  nor 
in  Spain  and  France,  with  their  magnificent  cathe- 
drals, centuries  in  building,  nations  in  which  the 
greatest  proportion  of  illiteracy  is  found,  —  but  in 
Puritan  New  England,  with  its  plain  school-houses 
and  its  plain  meeting-houses,  in  which  in  the  olden 
time  every  man  and  woman  and  child  could  read, 
that  the  greatest  and  the  best  religious  life  is  found. 

By  this  we  are  to  measure  government.  Not 
that  is  the  best  government  which  best  governs  to- 
day, but  that  which,  by  the  very  process  of  gov- 
ernment, is  developing  the  best  manhood  for  to- 
morrow. It  may  be  that  Dublin  is  better  governed 
than  New  York,  but  that  is  not  the  vital  question. 
Compare  two  Irish  brothers,  one  in  Ireland,  one  in 
the  United  States,  and  then  after  fifty  years  com- 
pare the  grandchildren.  The  government  that  puts 
the  vote  into  hands  that  do  not  know  how  to  use 
it,  and  teaches  them  how  to  use  it  in  the  using,  is 
the  better  government  of  the  two.  For  govern- 
ment is  to  be  measured  by  the  men  it  CA^entually 
makes,  not  primarily  by  the  advantages  it  immedi- 
ately confers. 

So  all  educational  systems  are  to  be  measured 


CHRIST S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  185 

by  no  other  standard  than  this,  —  the  men  and 
women  they  produce.  We  are  told  that  China  has 
a  public  school  system  older  than  the  United 
States  ;  that  its  most  ancient  university  was  estab- 
lished one  thousand  years  before  the  Christian 
Era  ;  that  its  Imperial  Academy  at  Pekin  dates 
from  the  days  of  Mahomet  ;  that  it  has  been  a  lit- 
erary nation  from  a  period  long  anterior  to  the 
birth  of  Christ.^  We  are  told  that  Germany  has  a 
better  public  school  system  than  the  United  States  ; 
that  the  system  is  better  graded  ;  that  the  relation 
of  the  preparatory  schools  to  the  universities  is 
better  adjusted;  that  the  discipline  is  more  equably 
administered ;  that  the  standard  of  scholarship  is 
more  rigorous.  We  are  told  that  the  American 
public  school  system  is  marked  by  serious  and  even 
fatal  defects ;  that  it  is  lacking  in  moral  and  re- 
ligious instruction ;  that  the  schools  are  atheistic ; 
that  we  must  return  to  the  old  belief  that  educa- 
tion is  a  function  of  the  church,  not  of  the  state,  — 
must  substitute  the  parochial  for  the  public  school, 
and  as  I  am  writing  this  chapter,  this  attempt  is 
being  made  by  the  Conservative  party  in  England. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  China's  school  system  is 
older ;  it  is  probably  true  that  Germany's  school 
system  is  better  organized.  I  believe  it  to  be  true 
that  the  American  school  system  imperatively 
needs  an  infusion  of  moral  and  religious  education, 
which  we  have  either  carelessly  allowed  to  drop 

^  See  W.  A.  P.  Martin,  The  Chinese,  their  Education,  Philoso- 
phy, and  Letters,  pp.  85-90 ;  Gray's  China,  vol.  i.  p.  178. 


186      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

out,  or  carefully  excluded.  Nevertheless,  if  the 
school  systems  of  China,  Germany,  Italy,  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  the  United  States  are  com- 
pared, or  if  in  the  United  States  the  denomina- 
tional schools,  whether  Protestant  or  Roman  Cath- 
olic, are  compared  with  the  public  schools,  by 
comparing,  not  their  courses  of  instruction,  but 
the  pupils  who  graduate  from  them,  the  public 
school  system  will  not  suffer  by  the  comparison. 
With  all  his  defects,  the  American  boy,  product  of 
the  American  public  school  system,  is  a  more  in- 
telligent workman,  a  more  patriotic  citizen,  more 
catholic  in  his  sympathies,  more  versatile  in  his 
abilities,  more  fitted  for  all  the  exigencies  of  life, 
than  the  graduate  of  the  more  ancient  Chinese 
system,  the  more  scholarly  German  system,  or  the 
more  religious  parochial  system.^ 

As  the  church,  the  state,  and  the  school  are  to 
be  measured  by  the  character  which  they  produce, 
so  is  the  industrial  system.  One  standard  of  value 
cannot  be  applied  in  one  case  and  another  standard 
of  value  in  another.  The  social  and  industrial 
system  is  to  be  measured,  not  by  the  wealth  it  pro- 
duces, but  by  the  men  it  produces  ;  not  by  the 
abundance  of  the  material  things,  but  by  the  kind 
of  men  developed  in  the  process.  Man  is  the 
standard  of  value,  not  things.  An  industrial  sys- 
tem,  then,    must    produce    good    men    and    good 

1  See  Hist,  of  the  Civil  War  in  America,  by  the  Comte  de 
Paris,  vol.  i.  pp.  277.  278,  for  illustration  of  the  versatility  of 
the  American  soldier. 


CHRIST'S    STANDARD    OF    VALUKS.  187 

women,  or  tend  to  produce  them.  If  it  does  not, 
it  fails,  measured  by  Christ's  standard.  The  evil 
of  slavery  was  not  that  sometimes  slaves  were  ill- 
treated  ;  that  they  were  poorly  housed  and  fed  ; 
that  they  were  not  paid  wages.  It  was  this  :  their 
manhood  was  suppressed  ;  there  was  no  true  home, 
no  permanent  and  protected  family,  no  permission 
of  education,  no  hope  for  development,  no  real 
stimulant  and  inspiration  to  life  in  its  higher  and 
nobler  forms.  The  justification  of  emancipation 
is  found  in  such  characters  as  Frederick  Douglas 
and  Booker  T.  Washington.  Slavery  might  feed, 
clothe,  and  house  the  slave,  but  it  could  never 
make  a  noble  specimen  of  manhood. 

The  modern  industrial  system,  measured  by  this 
standard,  is  far  better  than  that  which  it  sup- 
planted. The  wages  system  is  far  better  than 
slavery.  If  there  were  no  other  advantage  to  the 
laborer,  there  would  be  this,  that  he  is  a  free  man. 
No  master  can  maim  or  imprison  or  kill  him,  or 
sell  his  wife  or  his  children  away  from  him,  or 
drive  him  to  unrewarded  labor  with  a  lash.  If  he 
were  worse  housed,  worse  clothed,  worse  fed,  than 
the  feudal  villein  or  the  Southern  slave,  he  would 
still  be  in  better  condition.  What  American  would 
exchange  the  freedom  of  ill-paid  but  free  labor  for 
the  comforts,  assuming  for  the  moment  that  they 
existed,  of  slave  labor  ?  The  wages  system  is  far 
better  than  feudalism  ;  better  in  the  independence 
which  it  has  created,  the  spirit  of  liberty  which  it 
nourishes,  the  comforts  which  it  affords.     Even  in 


188      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

a  purely  material  point  of  view,  the  free  laborer  of 
to-day  is  in  far  better  condition  than  the  villein  of 
olden  time.  The  man  who  inveighs  against  the 
white  slave  of  to-day,  declaring  his  condition  worse 
than  that  of  the  negro  slave  of  the  South  or  the 
serf  of  the  Middle  Ages,  displays  either  his  igno- 
rance of  history  or  his  indifference  to  truth.  "  If," 
says  Mr.  Daniel  Pidgeon,^  "  there  was  something 
idyllic  about  the  picture  of  the  old  English  weaver 
working  at  his  loom  with  his  family  around  him, 
carding  and  spinning  wool  or  cotton  for  his  use, 
that  home  of  industry  was  very  different  in  fact 
and  fiction.  Huddled  together  in  a  hut  whose  liv- 
ing and  sleeping  accommodations  w^ere  curtailed,  by 
the  tools  of  his  trade,  to  limits  which  left  little 
room  for  decency,  the  weaver's  family  lived  and 
worked  without  comfort,  convenience,  good  food,  or 
good  air.  The  children  became  toilers  from  their 
earliest  youth,  and  grew  up  quite  ignorant,  no  one 
having  yet  conceived  of  education,  except  as  a  lux- 
ury of  the  rich.  Theft  of  materials  and  drunken- 
ness made  almost  every  cottage  a  scene  of  crime, 
want,  and  disorder.  The  grossest  superstitions 
took  the  place  of  intelligence,  health  was  impossi- 
ble in  the  absence  of  cleanliness  and  pure  air,  and 
such  was  the  moral  atmosphere  of  labor  that,  if 
some  family  with  more  virtue  than  common  tried 
to  conduct  themselves  so  as  to  save  their  self-re- 
spect, they    were    abused    or    ostracized   by  their 

1  Daniel   Pidgeon,  Old   World  Questions  and  New  World  An- 
swers^ ch.  XV.  p.  254  (133  f.  Harper's  Handy  Series  ed.). 


CHRIST S    STAXDAUIt    OF    VALUES.  189 

neighbors.  It  was  under  this  system  that  there 
arose  in  England  that  pauper  class,  the  reproach 
of  civilization,  which,  once  created,  continued  to 
grow  until  a  fourth  of  the  national  income  scarcely 
sufficed  to  support  the  nation's  poor.  Against  the 
spread  of  pauperism,  indeed,  legislation  and  phi- 
lanthropy seemed  alike  powerless,  and  the  evil  was 
only  at  last  checked  by  the  rise  of  those  manufac- 
turing industries  which  followed  upon  the  inven- 
tions of  Arkwright,  Hargreaves,  Crompton,  and 
the  enterprise  of  men  like  Wedgwood.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  newly-born  factory  system  alone  23re~ 
vented  England  from  being  overrun  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  the  most 
ignorant  and  depraved  of  men,  and  it  was  only  in 
the  factory  districts  that  the  demoralizing  agency 
of  pauperism  could  be  effectually  resisted.  .  .  . 
The  two  systems  were  simultaneously  in  force  in 
France  down  to  a  very  late  period  ;  domestic  in- 
dustry being  even  now  the  rule  in  the  country 
around  Amiens,  while  the  factory  reigns  in  the  city 
itself.  There,  however,  the  rural  workers  have  a 
very  bad  reputation  as  compared  with  that  of  the 
town  operatives.  Their  homes  are  worse  and  worse 
kept ;  beginning  work  at  no  regular  hour,  they 
idle  more,  and  earn  more  precarious  wages,  than  do 
factory  hands,  and  they  are  inveterate  drunkards." 
The  introduction  of  machinery  and  of  orga- 
nized labor,  the  two  great  industrial  changes  of 
the  present  century,  have  operated  in  three  ways 
to  improve  the    condition    of    the    laboring   man. 


190      CHRISTIAXJTY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

They  have  lowered  tlie  price  of  manufactured 
goods,  and  brought  within  the  reach  of  great 
classes  of  men  comforts  which  before  were  the 
special  privilege  of  the  few.  They  have  increased 
both  the  demand  for  labor  and  the  waaes  of  the 
laborer,  and  so  their  power  to  purchase  comforts. 
And  they  have  compelled  a  higher  degree  of  intel- 
ligence in  industry  by  transferring  to  machinery 
the  work  which  formerly  was  done  by  human 
muscles,  and  calling  on  human  brain  to  superin- 
tend the  machinery,  which  can  act,  but  cannot 
think,  and  therefore  cannot  superintend  itself. 

It  is  true  that  in  individual  instances  the  in- 
vention of  machinery  has  thrown  workingmen  out 
of  employment,  but  the  general  effect  of  this 
machinery  has  been  greatly  to  increase  the  de- 
mand for  labor,  as  well  as  to  make  a  demand  for 
greater  intelligence  in  labor.  New  occupations 
have  been  brought  into  existence  by  invention. 
Thousands  of  emjiloyees  are  to-day  engaged  in 
telegraphy,  who  before  would  have  been  without 
employment,  or  would  have  been  entering  into 
competition  with,  and  reducing  the  wages  of,  other 
employees.  The  displacement  of  the  stage-coach 
and  the  substitution  of  the  railroad,  by  increasing 
the  convenience  of  travel  and  transportation,  has 
multii^lied  the  number  of  travelers  and  of  articles 
to  be  transported,  and  multiplied  many  fold  the 
number  of  men  employed  in  transportation.  The 
invention  of  the  steam  printing-press,  creating  the 
cheap  newspaper,  and  in  turn  a  great  reading  con- 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  191 

stituency,  has  multiplied  the  demand  for  editors, 
reporters,  printers,  and  pressmen.  Stenography 
and  the  typewriter  have  called  into  existence  a 
new  class  of  clerical  assistants.  The  invention 
and  application  of  electricity  have  necessitated 
and  so  produced  electrical  workers  of  every  grade, 
from  Nicolas  Tesla  to  the  lineman.  The  chapter 
might  be  indefinitely  extended :  there  is  no  notable 
addition  to  the  machinery  of  the  world  which  has 
not  increased  the  demand  for  laborers  ;  and  there 
are  few  such  additions  which  have  not  made  a 
demand  for  educated,  experienced,  and  skilled 
laborers.^  With  this  increase  in  demand  for  labor 
has  come  an  increase  in  its  remuneration.  Robert 
Giffin,  in  his  "  Progress  of  the  Working  Classes," 
and  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  his  "  Industrial  Evolu- 
tion in  the  United  States,"  have  given  in  great 
detail  the  evidence  which  justifies  this  general 
assertion.  The  increase  in  the  wages  of  factory 
operatives  and  mechanics  in  England  ranges  from 
20  per  cent,  to  150  per  cent.  The  food  products 
of  the  English  laborer  remain  in  price,  on  the 
average,  about  what  they  were  forty  or  fifty  years 
ago,  but  clothing  is  materially  cheaper.  Rent 
has  increased,  but  this  is  because  the  houses  are 
better.  Making  allowance  for  the  increase  in  rent, 
Dr.  Giffin  estimates  the  wages  available  for  other 
purposes,  in  England,  as  nearly  double  what  they 
were  fifty  years  ago,  —  a  gain  from  about  fifteen 

1  See  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Industrial    Evolution  in   the   United 
States,  ehs.  xxvii.  and  xxviii. 


192      CIIRISTIAMTY   AXJ)    SOCIAL    I'JIOBLKMS. 

shillings  in  1835  to  twenty-seven  shillings  sixpence 
in  1885.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  on  the  basis  of 
reports  from  twenty  industries  and  nearly  one 
hundred  distinct  establishments,  reports,  on  the 
basis  of  the  wage  rate  in  1860,  a  rise  in  wages  in 
the  United  States  from  87.7  per  cent,  in  1840  to 
160.7  in  1891.1  Never  before  in  human  his- 
tory—  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  except  perhaps 
in  Australia  —  shall  we  find  the  laborer  as  well 
housed,  fed,  and  clothed  as  in  this  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  the  United  States.  Never 
before  has  he  had  as  much  opportunity  for  lei- 
sure, education,  and   moral   advancement.     "  The 

1  See,  for  detailed  and  elaborate  statistics  on  tliis  point,  The 
Progress  of  the  Working  Classes  in  the  last  Half  Century,  by 
Robert  Giffin,  Esq.,  I.L.  D.,  and  Industrial  Evolution  in  the 
United  States,  by  C.  D.  Wright,  eh.  xvii.  See,  also,  on  this 
subject,  L.  J.  Brentano,  Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Pro- 
duction. Two  extracts  must  suffice  to  give  concrete  illustration 
of  his  conclusions,  and  the  data  on  which  they  are  based :  "  The 
poor  hand-loom  weaver  makes  a  martyr  of  himself  in  vain  with 
his  thirteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  and  a  weekly  wage  of  three 
to  seven  shillings,  in  order  to  compete  with  the  factory  operative 
working  short  hours  for  high  pay,''  p.  67.  "  What,  then,  has  the 
development  of  the  English  cotton  industry  to  show  us  ?  Before 
all  things,  it  shows  a  concentration  of  factories  in  the  places 
possessing  the  most  favorable  conditions  for  production.  And 
what  are  these  places  ?  Those  where  wages  are  the  cheapest  ? 
Among  such  was,  for  instance,  Ireland,  with  a  few  spinning- 
factories  employing  about  o,000  hands  at  wages  half  as  high  as 
in  England.  But  for  that  very  reason  labor  in  that  country  was 
far  too  dear  for  English  capital  to  seek  investment  there.  The 
place  it  chose  was  where  the  highest  paid  labor  gave  assurance 
of  the  most  energetic  utilization  of  the  other  favorable  condi- 
tions of  production.  Lancashire  became  the  centre  of  the  cotton 
industry."    Soe.  So.  Ser.  ed.  p.  59. 


CHRISrS    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  193 

higher  wage  rate  per  diem,"  writes  Schoenhof,i 
"  ruling  in  the  United  States,  enables  the  opera- 
tives to  enjoy  a  better  mode  of  living,  and  better 
nutrition  of  body  and  mind.  They  eat  more  and 
better  food  than  any  of  the  operatives  of  Europe, 
and  their  general  mode  of  living  is  upon  a  higher 
standard." 

Nor  has  the  introduction  of  machinery  and 
organized  labor  promoted  intellectual  develop- 
ment only  by  indirection.  Machine  labor  requires 
gTeater  intelligence  in  most  industries  than  hand 
labor.  The  attrition  of  mind  with  mind  in  factory 
employments  has  in  it  a  power  to  quicken  life,  of 
which  the  solitary  worker  under  the  old  system 
had  no  experience.  In  both  ways  the  modern 
system  has  conduced  to  human  development.  Mr. 
W.  H.  Mallock,2  in  ''  Labor  and  the  Popular  Wel- 
fare," gives  some  striking  illustrations  of  the  direct 
educational  effect  of  the  introduction  of  machinery, 
from  which  we  select  one  instance  ;  "  When  Watt 
had  perfected  his  steam-engine  in  structure,  design, 
and  princi])le,  and  was  able  to  make  a  model  which 
was  triumphantly  successful  in  its  working,  he  en- 
countered an  obstacle  of  which  few  people  are 
aware,  and  which,  had  it  not  been  overcome,  would 
have  made  the  development  of  steam-power,  as 
we  know  it  now,  an  utter  impossibility.     It  was, 

1  J.  Sehoenhof ,  Economy  of  High  Wages,  p.  84  ;  quoted  by  L. 
J.  Brentano,  Hours  and  Wages  in  Belation  to  Production,  Soc.  Se. 
Ser.  p.  5o. 

2  W.  H.  Mallock,  Labor  and  the  Popular  Welfare,  L.  1894, 
p.  185  f. 


194      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCJAL    PROBLEMS. 

indeed,  in  the  opinion  of  the  engineer  Smeaton, 
fatal  to  the  success  of  Watt's  steam-engine  alto- 
gether. This  obstacle  was  the  difficulty  of  making 
cylinders,  of  any  useful  size,  sufficiently  true  to 
keep  the  pistons  steam-tight.  AYatt,  with  indomi- 
table perseverance,  endeavored  to  train  men  to  the 
degree  of  accuracy  required,  by  setting  them  to 
woYh  at  cylinders  and  nothing  else,  and  by  in- 
ducing fathers  to  bring  up  their  sons  with  them 
to  the  workshop,  and  thus  from  their  earliest 
youth  habituate  them  to  this  single  task.  By  this 
means,  in  time,  a  band  of  laborers  was  secured  in 
whom  skill  was  raised  to  the  highest  point  of  which 
it  is  capable." 

In  vain  Carlyle  and  Ruskin  call  on  us  to  turn 
about  and  march  with  our  faces  to  the  past  and 
our  backs  to  the  future.  The  question  whether 
the  wages  system  is  better  than  feudalism  or  slav- 
ery has  been  settled ;  it  remains  to  decide  whether 
it  is  the  final  system,  whether  it  is  producing  the 
best  men  that  a  true  industrial  system  could  pro- 
duce.    I  believe  it  is  not. 

I.  Our  present  industrial  system  is  not  giving 
steady  and  permanent  employment  to  all  willing 
laborers.  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  the  London  sta- 
tistician, and  one  the  value  of  whose  reports  on 
the  condition  of  London  is  recognized  by  all  scien- 
tific men,  shows  us  that  from  ten  to  twenty  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  London  are  living  on 
the  verge  of  starvation,  the  large  majority  of  them 
willing  to  work,  but  finding  only  casual  work,  or 


CHRIST'S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  195 

finding  none  at  all,  and  living  on  charity.  This  is 
the  famons  submerged  tenth.  No  industrial  sys- 
tem is  producing  the  right  kind  of  men  and  women 
which  leaves  from  ten  to  fifteen  per  cent,  of  the 
population  of  its  greatest  city  without  the  oppor- 
tunity to  earn  an  honest  livelihood.  In  Paris  the 
conditions  are  not  so  bad,  but  they  are  prevented 
from  going  in  the  same  direction  with  great  rapid- 
ity only  by  governmental  action  providing  work 
for  the  unemployed.  The  best-informed  students 
of  the  conditions  of  life  in  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn testify  that  there  are  hundreds,  and  oftentimes 
thousands,  of  men  vainly  seeking  employment  in 
these  great  cities.  Beside  the  tramps,  who  do  not 
want  to  work  and  think  they  do,  and  the  invalids, 
who  would  but  cannot  work,  in  our  great  cities 
there  are  tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  women 
who  would  gladly  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brow  and  cannot  do  it.  The  opportunity 
is  not  afforded  to  them.  In  the  year  1885  a  care- 
ful statistician  estimated  that  there  were  nearly  a 
million  willing  workers  out  of  employment  in  the 
United  States ;  and  the  United  States  has  been 
called  the   Eldorado  of    the   workingmen.^     Com- 

1  See  the  statement  of  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  quoted  ch. 
iv.  p.  112.  While  engaged  on  this  volume,  I  find  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Eagle  a  letter  by  Darwin  J.  Meserole  (March  9,  1896),  the 
superintendent  of  the  Brooklyn  Home  of  Industry,  conducted 
under  the  auspices  of  the  City  Mission  and  Tract  Society,  who 
says  "  an  average  of  150  men  a  month  are  turned  from  the  doors 
of  the  industrial  department  of  the  City  Mission  alone.  These 
men  will  work  if  given  the  opportunity,  and  for  the  lowest  wages, 


196     CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

mercial  crises  recur  with  frightful  rapidity,  taking 
money  out  of  the  pockets  of  capitalists,  and  bread 
out  of  the  mouths  of  children  of  workinainen. 
That  is  not  a  healthful  state  of  society  which 
makes  such  recurrences  possible.  Whether  they 
are  due  to  unjust  taxation,  to  ill-advised  labor 
organization,  to  spendthrift  habits,  to  a  poorly 
managed  currency,  to  misdirection  of  energies,  or 
to  all  combined,  is  not  the  question  ;  the  simple 
question  now  is  this :  Is  that  labor  system  perfect 
which  makes  it  possible  that  thousands  of  men 
should  be  thrust  out  of  the  possibility  of  earning 
a  livelihood  ?  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  thou 
shalt  eat  bread,"  said  God.  Then  every  man  has 
a  right  to  earn  his  daily  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his 
face,  and  society  will  not  be  organized  on  a  truly 
Christian  basis  until  it  is  so  organized  that  every 
willing  worker  wdll  have  an  opportunity  to  earn 
enough  to  support,  maintain,  and  educate  himself 
and  his  household. 

11.  The  present  industrial  system  not  only  fails 
to  give  employment  to  all,  but  fails  also  to  give  to 
all  those  who  are  employed  under  it  wages  ade- 
quate for  true  livelihood.  If  by  life  is  meant  life 
of  the  mind  and  spirit  as  well  as  of  the  body, 
wages  are  often  not  living  wages.  The  system 
out  of  which  we  are  gradually  emerging,  the  sys- 

namely,  food  and  shelter.  During-  the  four  years  of  the  existence 
of  the  Home  of  Industry,  thousands  of  homeless  men  have  applied 
for  assistance,  and  we  have  yet  to  hear  the  first  refusal  to  work 
from  the  hundreds  to  whom  we  have  been  able  to  offer  employ- 
ment." 


CffRfST'S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  197 

tern  of  individualism,  the  system  of  the  Manchester 
school,  affirms  that  the  capitalist  should  hire  labor 
in  the  cheapest  market,  and  the  laborer  should  sell 
his  labor  in  the  highest  market ;  in  other  words, 
that  every  man  who  hires  labor  is  to  pay  the  least 
possible  price,  and  every  laborer  is  to  extort  the 
largest  possible  price.  Under  this  system  the  ten- 
dency is  to  a  depression  of  wages  and  a  deteriora- 
tion of  manhood.  To  ascertain  this  tendency  we 
only  need  to  consider  the  condition  of  workingmen 
in  those  connnunities  where  labor  has  not  oroan- 
ized,  where  legislation  has  not  interfered,  where  all 
labor  conditions  and  labor  remuneration  have  been 
left  to  be  settled  solely  by  free  competition. 

At  one  time,  when  emigration  was  taking  place 
from  Italy,  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Italians 
not  to  emigrate,  but  to  remain  in  their  fatherland 
and  help  to  build  up  their  nation.  This  was  their 
reply  ^ :  — 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  '  the  nation  '  ?  Do  you  refer 
to  the  most  miserable  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  land? 
If  so,  we  are  indeed  the  nation.  Look  at  our  pale  and 
emaciated  faces,  our  bodies  worn  out  with  over-fatigue 
and  insufficient  food.  We  sow  and  reap  corn,  but  never 
taste  white  bread ;  we  cultivate  the  vine,  but  a  drop  of 
wine  never  touches  our  lips.  We  raise  cattle,  but  never 
eat  meat ;  we  are  covered  with  rags,  we  live  in  wretched 
hovels ;  in  winter  we  suffer  from  the  cold,  and  both 
winter  and  summer  from  the  pangs  of  hunger.  Can  a 
land  which  does  not  provide  its  inhabitants,  who  are 

1  Quoted  by  Emile  de  Laveleye,  Contemporary  Review,  vol.  xlvii. 
p.  498,  April,  1885. 


19S    cfriii>T/AXiTy  asd  social  rnoBLEMS. 

Trilling  to  work,  with  sufficient  to  live  upon,  be  con- 
sidered bv  tliem  as  a  fatherland  ?  '* 

Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton  has  described  the 
intellectual  and  moral  starvation  of  the  French 
peasantry.^  The  condition  of  the  German  peas- 
antry is  but  little  better.  ^lore  than  half  the 
population  of  Prussia  had  in  1ST5  an  income  less 
than  one  hundred  and  five  dollars  a  year  each,  and 
only  140.000  persons  incomes  above  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.-  Perhaps  the  most  significant 
and  appalling  indication  of  the  effect  of  this  system 
is  seen  in  the  death  rate.      Says  Elisee  Eeclus'^ :  — 

••  The  mean  mortality  among  the  well-to-do  is.  at  the 
utmost,  one  to  sixty.  !Now.  the  population  of  Europe 
being  a  third  of  a  thousand  millions,  the  average  deaths, 
according  to  the  rate  of  mortalitv.  among  the  fortunate, 
should  not  exceed  five  millions.  They  are  three  times 
five  millions.  What  liave  we  done  with  these  ten  mil- 
lion human  beings  killed  before  their  time  ?  If  it  be 
true  that  we  have  duties  one  towards  the  other,  are  we 
not  responsible  for  the  servitude,  the  cold,  the  hunger, 
the  miseries  of  every  sort,  which  doom  the  unfortunate 
to  untimely  deaths  ?  Race  of  Cains,  what  have  we 
done  with  our  brothers  ?  " 

The  conditions  produced  by  freedom  of  contract 
have  been  but  little  better  in  England.  Francis 
A.  AValker.  in  *•  The  AVages  Question."  ^  portrays 

^  P.  G.  Hamerton.  Bound  wv  Ho7ne.  chs.  xi.  and  sii. 

-  John  Rae.  Cont.  Socialism,  p.  :>4. 

■^  Contanporary  Eevinr.  vol.  xlv.  p.  (>j-.  May.  1SS4,  "  The 
Anarchy  of  an  Anarchist." 

^  Pages  oO  and  61.  The  authorities  cited  for  his  statements 
are  modern  English  observers. 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  199 

these  conditions  in  graphic  detail,  and  confirms  his 
report  by  unquestionable  authorities.  A  few  sen- 
tences must  suffice  here  to  illustrate  pages  of  de- 
scription in  his  volume  :  — 

"  To-day,  in  the  West  of  England,  it  is  impossible  for 
an  agricultural  laborer  to  eat  meat  more  than  once  a 
week.  ...  In  Devon,  the  laborer  breakfasts  on  tea-kettle 
broth,  —  hot  water  poured  on  bread  and  flavored  with 
onions ;  dines  on  bread  and  hard  cheese  at  2d.  a  pound, 
with  cider  very  washy  and  sour ;  and  sups  on  potatoes 
or  cabbage  greased  with  a  tiny  bit  of  fat  bacon.  He 
seldom  more  than  sees  or  smells  butcher's  meat.  .  .  . 
The  cottages,  as  a  rule,  are  not  fit  to  house  pigs  in.  Of 
309  cottages  at  Ramsbottom,  one  of  the  best  districts  in 
Lancashire,  137  had  but  one  bedroom  each,  the  aggre- 
gate occupants  being  777  !  "  ^ 

In  the  United  States  this  theory  of  industrial  life 
as  a  perpetual  struggle  between  conflicting  classes, 
this  economic  doctrine  that  labor  is  a  commodity  to 
be  purchased  in  the  cheapest  market,  this  wages 
system  with  its  tools  all  belonging  to  one  class  and 
used  by  another  class,  has  not  had  time  to  bring 
forth  its  full  fruition.  But  even  in  the  United 
States  we  have  the  spectacle  of  a  tool-owner  getting 
control,  by  ways  not  above  suspicion,  of  some  of 
the  great  highways  of  the  nation,  and  receiving, 
for  twenty-five  years,  an  income  of  thirteen  thou- 

1  It  does  not  come  within  the  province  of  this  volume  to  pre- 
sent in  detail  and  with  any  fullness  the  indictment  against  the 
modern  industrial  system.  This  has  heen  amply  done  by  others  : 
Laveleye.  Groveland,  John  Rae.  F.  A.  Walker,  John  Stuart  Mill, 
Thomas  Carhle,  and  others.     See  notes  to  eh.  iv.  ante. 


200      CHRISTJAyiTY   AXD    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

sand  dollars  a  day,  and  paying"  the  brakenian  from 
a  dollar  to  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day.  It  is  not 
strange  that  the  brakenian  thinks  the  disparity  too 
gi'eat.     Most  impartial  Americans  agree  with  him. 

I  believe  that  the  system  which  divides  society 
into  two  classes,  capitalists  and  laborers,  is  but  a 
temporary  one,  and  that  the  industrial  unrest  of 
our  time  is  the  result  of  a  blind  struggle  toward  a 
democracy  of  wealth,  in  which  the  tool-users  will 
also  be  the  tool-owneis :  in  whicli  labor  will  hire 
capital,  not  capital  labor;  in  which  men,  not  money, 
will  control  in  industry,  as  they  now  control  in 
government.  But  the  doctrine  that  labor  is  a  com- 
modity, and  that  capital  is  to  buy  it  in  the  cheapest 
market.^  is  not  even  temporarily  sound  ;  it  is  eco- 
nomically false  as  it  is  ethically  unjust. 

There  is  no  such  commodity  as  labor  ;  it  does  not 
exist.  When  a  workingman  comes  to  the  factory 
on  a  Monday  morning  he  lias  nothing  to  sell,  he  is 
empty-handed  :  he  has  come  in  order  to  jiroduce 
something  by  his  exertion,  and  that  something, 
when  it  is  ]n'oduced,  is  to  be  sold,  and  part  of  the 
proceeds  of  that  sale  will  of  right  belong  to  him, 
because  he  has  helped  to  produce  it.  And  as  there 
is  no  labor  commodity  to  be  sold,  so  there  is  no 
labor  market  in  which  to  sell  it.  A  free  market 
assumes  a  variety  of  sellers  with  different  commodi- 

^  "  What  is  fair  ■wajjes  ?  "  The  reply  is.  that  "  any  wages  are 
fair  which  are  as  \\v^\\  as  that  sort  of  work  t-oniniaiuls  in  the  open 
nuirket."  "  Labor,  like  flour  or  cotton  cloth,  should  always  be 
boui^ht  in  the  cheapest  nuirket  aiul  sold  in  the  dearest."  W.  A. 
Croffut.  Thf  Forum.  Mnv.   ISSti. 


CHBIST'S    STAXDARD    OF    VALUES.  201 

ties  and  a  variety  of  buyers  with  different  needs, 
the  seller  at  perfect  liberty  to  sell  or  not  to  sell,  the 
buyer  at  perfect  liberty    to    buy   or  not  to    buy. 
There  is  no  such  market  for  labor.     The  laborers 
are  in  a  great  majority  of  cases  as  firmly  attached 
to  their  town  by  prejudice,  by  ignorance  of  the  out- 
side world  and  its  needs,  by  home  considerations,  by 
their  little  possessions,  — their  house  and  lot,  —  and 
by  religious  ties,  as  if  they  were  rooted  in  the  soil. 
They  have  no  variety  of  skill  to  offer  :  as  a  rule,  the 
laborer  knows  how  to  do  well  only  one  thing,  uses 
well  only  one  tool,  and  must  find  an  o\\Tier  of  that 
tool  who  wishes  a  laborer  to  use  it,  or  must  be  idle.^ 
''  A  merchant,''  says  Frederic  Harrison, ''  sits  in  his 
counting-house,  and,   by    a  few   letters  or   forms, 
transports    and    distributes    the    subsistence    of   a 
whole  city  from  continent  to  continent.     In  other 
cases,  as  the  shopkeeper,  the  ebb  and  flow  of  pass- 
ing multitudes  supplies  the  want  of  locomotion  in 
his  wares.      His  customers   supply  the  locomotion 
for  him.     This  is  a  true  market.     Here  competi- 
tion acts  rapidly,  fully,  simply,  fairly.     It  is  totally 
otherwise  with  a  day-laborer,  who  has  no  commodity 
to  sell.     He  must  himself  be  present  at  every  mar- 
ket, which  means  costly,  personal  locomotion.     He 
cannot  correspond  with   his  employer:  he  cannot 
send  a  sample  of  his  strength ;  nor  do  employers 
knock   at  his  cottage  door."     There   is  neither  a 
labor  commodity  to  sell  nor  a  labor  market  in  which 

^  See  F.  A.  Walker,  The  Wages  Question,  ch.  ii.     The  quotation 
from  F.  Harrison  is  also  from  this  chapter. 


202      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

to  sell  it.     Both  are  fictions  of  political  economy. 
The  actual  facts  are  as  follows :  — 

Most  commodities  in  our  time  —  even  agricul- 
tural commodities  are  gradually  coming  under  these 
conditions  —  are  produced  by  an  organized  body  of 
workingmen,  carrying  on  their  work  under  the  super- 
intendence of  a  "  captain  of  industry,"  and  by  the 
use  of  costly  tools.  This  requires  the  cooperation 
of  three  classes,  —  the  tool-owner  or  capitalist,  the 
superintendent  or  manager,  and  the  tool-user  or 
laborer.  The  result  is  the  joint  product  of  their 
industry,  —  for  the  tool  itself  is  only  a  reservoired 
product  of  industry,  —  and  therefore  belongs  to 
them  jointly.  It  is  the  business  of  political  economy 
to  ascertain  how  values  can  be  equitably  divided 
between  these  partners  in  a  common  enterprise. 
This  is  the  labor  question  in  a  sentence.  It  is  not 
true  that  the  laborer  is  entitled  to  the  whole,  nor 
does  he  demand  it,  whatever  some  of  the  wild  advo- 
cates of  his  cause  may  have  claimed  for  him.  The 
superintendent  is  entitled  to  a  share,  and  a  large 
share.  To  direct  such  an  industry,  to  know  what 
products  are  needed  in  the  world,  to  find  a  pur- 
chaser for  them  at  a  price  which  will  give  a  fair 
return  for  the  labor  of  producing  them,  requires 
itself  labor  of  a  high  quality,  and  one  which  de- 
serves a  generous  compensation.  The  tool-owner 
is  entitled  to  remuneration.  Presumptively  he,  or 
some  one  from  whom  he  has  received  the  tool,  has 
saved  the  money  which  his  companions  spent  either 
in  present  comfort  or  in  doubtful  pleasures,  and  he 


CHRISrS   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  203 

is  entitled  to  a  reward  for  his  economy  and  thrift, 
though  it  may  be  a  question  whether  our  modern 
industrial  system  does  not  sometimes  give  a  re- 
ward too  great  for  the  virtue  of  acquisition,  and  so 
transform  the  virtue  into  a  vice.  The  laborer  is 
entitled  to  compensation.  Since  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  no  one  in  theory  denies  this  right.  The 
determination  how  the  division  of  the  product  of 
this  joint  industry  shall  be  made  is  a  difficult  one. 
But  it  is  certain  that  it  is  not  to  be  made  by  a 
system  which  bids  the  capitalist  pay  as  little  wages 
as  possible  for  the  service  rendered,  and  the  laborer 
render  as  little  service  as  possible  for  the  wages 
received.  Whatever  may  be  the  right  way,  this  is 
the  wrong  way. 

Ethically,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  employer  to  pay, 
not  the  lowest,  but  the  highest  possible  wages ;  as 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  employed  to  render,  not  the 
least,  but  the  largest  possible  service.  Selfishness 
will  not  solve  the  labor  problem.  Selfishness  and 
shrewdness  in  employer  and  employed,  perpetually 
struggling  against  one  another,  will  not  promote 
peace  nor  produce  welfare.  Economically,  it  is 
wise  for  the  employer  to  pay  the  largest  possible 
wages ;  for  the  larger  wages  produce  better  men, 
and  better  men  produce  better  work.  The  Ameri- 
can worker,  because  he  is  paid  better  wages  and 
lives  a  better  life,  operates  more  spindles  and 
more  looms  in  textile  working,  turns  out  more  tons 
of  coal  and  iron,  works  more  steadily  and  more 
intelligently   in   every  hour   of  the   working  day, 


204      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

utilizes  more  effectively  every  moment,  and  pro- 
duces not  only  more  but  better  product  than  his 
European  competitor.  So,  also,  in  spite  of  short- 
ened hours  and  higher  wages,  the  labor  cost  of 
the  English  cotton  industry  is  lower  than  that 
of  the  Continental  factories.  The  country  where 
labor  is  the  cheapest  is  the  country  where  wages 
are  the  highest  and  the  hours  are  the  shortest. 
The  country  where  the  employer  gets  the  best 
returns  for  his  investments  is  also  the  country 
where  the  workingmen  receive  the  best  recompense. 
The  labor  paid  ten  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents 
in  the  Massachusetts  clock  factories  proves  more 
profitable  to  the  employer  than  the  labor  paid  ten 
to  twelve  shillings  in  the  Black  Forest. ^ 

The  laborer  and  the  capitalist  are  partners  in 
a  common  enterprise.  An  injury  to  one  is  an 
injury  to  both.  A  benefit  to  one  is  a  benefit  to 
both.  Their  interests  are  common  interests,  and 
the  experience  of  the  world  justifies  the  declara- 
tion that  the  industry  which  promotes  the  noblest 
manhood  in  the  worker  produces  the  best  result  in 
the  goods.  No  industrial  system  is  in  its  essence 
a  Christian  system  which  does  not  practically  re- 
cognize the  truth  that  it  is  ruinous  to  grind  up 
men,  women,  and  children,  in  order  to  make  cheap 
goods.  No  industrial  system  is  righteous  which 
does  not  make  such  a  division  of  the  profits  as  to 

1  L.  J.  Brentano,  Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production, 
Soc.  !Sc.  Ser.,  pp.  16,  45,  53,  74 ;  John  Rae,  Eight  Hours  for  Work, 
pp.  153,  154. 


CHRISrS    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  205 

give  to  all  who  are  engaged  in  it  a  living  wage. 
What  is  a  living  wage  I  will  not  here  undertake 
to  discuss.  It  must  at  least  provide  for  food, 
shelter,  and  clothing.  It  ought  to  provide  books, 
pictures,  education.  And  it  ought  to  enable  the 
man  to  earn  the  livelihood  for  his  wife  and  his 
younger  children. 

A  living  wage  is  not,  however,  in  itself  the 
consummation  of  justice:  it  is  only  one  means 
toward  that  consummation.  Justice  demands  that 
all  those  engaged  in  a  common  enterprise  should 
share  its  profits  and  its  losses.  Commercially 
speaking,  it  should  be  so  conducted  that  every 
one  engaged  in  it  will  have  as  the  result,  if  he  is 
temperate  and  industrious,  enough  to  maintain 
life,  —  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual ;  but  he 
may  be  entitled  to  more. 

The  famous  aphorism  of  Louis  Blanc,  "From 
every  man  according  to  his  ability,  to  every  man 
according  to  his  needs,"  is  the  law  of  benevolence, 
not  of  justice.  Benevolence  calls  on  every  man 
to  render  such  service  as  he  is  able  to  the  com- 
munity, and  to  draw  out  of  it  for  himself  no  more 
than  he  needs.  The  highest  self-love  concurs  with 
public  spirit  in  this  law.  If  he  contribute  less 
than  he  is  able,  his  ability  shrinks  and  shrivels 
till  it  adjusts  itself  to  his  actual  contribution.  For 
no  man  retains  an  ability  which  he  does  not  em- 
ploy. If  he  takes  for  himself  more  than  he  needs, 
he  either  hoards  it  —  in  which  ease  it  is  of  no 
use  to  him  —  or  he  spends  it  in  vitiating  luxuries 


206      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

which  minister  to  his  sensual  and  lower  nature, 
in  which  case  it  is  an  injury  to  him.  But  though 
this  famous  aphorism  is  the  law  of  benevolence, 
and  even  of  spiritual  prudence,  it  is  not  the  law 
of  justice.  That  law  is  expressed  in  the  Golden 
Rule :  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.  We  would 
have  others  give  us  what  belongs  to  us.  What 
we  have  produced  by  our  own  skill  and  industry 
does  belong  to  us.  We  may,  and  in  many  cases 
ought  to,  give  to  another  who  needs  it  more  than 
belongs  to  him  ;  in  many  cases  the  highest  spirit- 
ual prudence  directs  us  so  to  do.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that  he  has  a  right  to  take  it  from  us. 
To  do  this  is  an  act  of  pali3able  injustice.  An 
anonymous  writer  in  the  "  Outlook  "  has  recently 
stated  this  in  a  concrete  illustration  with  such 
clearness  that  I  transfer  his  statement  to  these 
pages :  — 

"  Two  carpenters  are  laying  shingles  upon  a  village 
hall.  One  lays  a  thousand  shingles  in  a  day.  The 
other  is  quicker  of  eye  and  hand,  and  lays  fifteen  hun- 
dred. The  one  gives  as  much  to  the  community  in  two 
days  as  the  other  gives  in  three.  If  the  community 
renders  to  him  again  as  much  in  two  days  as  in  three 
days  to  the  other,  each  man  receives  his  own.  If  the 
more  efficient  says  to  the  community,  '  It  is  true  that  I 
have  produced  more  than  my  brother.  But  he  also  has 
worked  faithfully,  according  to  his  ability.  He  also  has 
a  wife  and  children.  He  and  I  will  share  alike,'  that 
is  love  and  it  is  beautiful.     But  if  the  community,  with- 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  207 

out  his  will,  returns  to  the  more  efficient  only  half  the 
fair  equivalent  of  the  whole  product  of  the  two,  it  does 
not  render  his  own  to  him,  but  robs  him." 

When  three  men,  a  tool-owner,  a  superinten- 
dent, and  a  tool-user,  unite  to  create  a  certain  pro- 
duct of  their  combined  endeavor,  this  product 
clearly  belongs  to  the  three  jointly.  It  does  not 
belong  to  the  tool-user,  leaving  him  to  pay  for  the 
tool  the  lowest  possible  rental ;  nor  to  the  tool- 
owner,  leaving  him  to  pay  to  the  tool-user  the 
lowest  possible  wage.  It  belongs  to  the  three 
jointly,  and  justice  requires  that  it  be  shared  be- 
tween them  in  proportion  to  their  respective  con- 
tributions. If  the  industry  has  been  successful,  it 
will  be  of  sufficient  value  to  pay  the  cost  of  the 
tool  which  has  been  worn  out  in  the  operation,  — 
in  other  words,  the  cost  of  wear  and  tear,  —  and  the 
cost  of  subsistence  of  the  tool-user  and  the  super- 
intendent. All  over  and  above  tliat  is  profit, 
and  should  be  shared  between  them  in  some  just 
and  equable  proportion.  Let  a  simple  illustra- 
tion make  this  clear  :  — 

To  make  a  pair  of  shoes  three  things  are  neces- 
sary, —  materials,  tools,  and  a  workman.  The 
workman  must  live,  or  he  cannot  make  the 
shoes.  His  subsistence,  while  he  is  making  them, 
is  therefore  a  necessary  part  of  the  cost  of  the 
shoes.  He  must  have  materials  and  tools  ;  but 
one  pair  of  shoes  need  not  pay  the  cost  of  making 
the  tools,  any  more  than  it  need  pay  the  cost  of 
making  the  workman.      The  cost  of    the  tools  is 


208      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

properly  divided  among  all  the  shoes  which  one  set 
of  tools  will  make.  The  cost  of  making  a  pair  of 
shoes,  then,  is  sufficient  money  to  enable  the  shoe- 
maker to  live,  to  purchase  the  materials  for  the 
shoes,  and  to  pay  the  proportionate  cost  of  the 
tools  and  their  repair.  If  the  pair  of  shoes  is 
worth  more  than  these  sums,  thei^e  is  a  profit.  If 
it  is  worth  less,  there  is  a  loss.  Under  the  present 
system,  the  capitalist,  or  tool-owner,  buys  the  ma- 
terials, pays  the  cost  of  the  tools  and  the  re23air 
of  the  tools,  and  whatever  he  is  compelled  to  pay 
in  order  to  induce  the  workman  to  work  with  the 
tools  ;  he  pockets  all  the  profit  and  bears  all  the 
loss.  Is  there  not  reason  why  the  profit  and  the 
loss  should  be  shared  between  the  two?  If  so, 
what  is  the  reason  ?  Why  should  the  man  who 
furnishes  the  tools  take  all  the  profits,  or  bear  all 
the  losses,  any  more  than  the  man  who  furnishes 
all  the  labor  ? 

The  author  is  a  laborer  ;  the  publisher  is  a  capi- 
talist. It  is  very  rarely  the  case  that  the  publisher 
furnishes  the  literary  labor,  or  the  author  the 
necessary  capital.  In  the  last  century  the  author 
was  a  wage-worker.  He  wrote  his  book,  and 
carried  it  to  the  capitalist  to  be  printed.  The 
price  was  determined  by  the  literar}^  labor  market. 
The  publisher  bought  his  labor  wherever  he  could 
get  it  most  cheaply.  As  a  result,  the  author  lived 
in  an  attic  on  oatmeal  or  bread-and-water,  and 
wlien  he  could  not  find  a  capitalist  to  take  his 
labor  he  went  to  the  debtor's  prison.     Thackeray 


CHRIST'S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  209 

gives  a  dismal  picture  of  the  condition  of  the  lit- 
erary laborer  in  that  epoch.  By  what  process  of 
peaceful  revolution  I  know  not,  the  relation  be- 
tween author  and  publisher,  literary  laborer  and 
literary  capitalist,  has  been  converted  into  one  of 
profit-sharing.  The  novelist  writes  his  story ;  the 
publisher  prints  and  puts  it  on  the  market,  and 
pays  the  author  a  certain  percentage  of  the  profits. 
If  the  book  has  a  large  sale,  the  author  gets  a 
large  return;  if  a  small  sale,  he  gets  a  small 
return.  This  remuneration  automatically  increases 
and  diminishes  with  the  market  value  of  the  pro- 
duct of  his  industry.  This  is  profit-sharing.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  the  relations  between  author 
and  publisher  afford  a  curious  illustration  of  the 
effect  of  profit-sharing  in  producing  a  spirit  of 
honor  and  of  absolute  confidence.  The  author  is 
wholly  dependent  on  the  publisher's  statement  of 
the  number  of  copies  sold  for  his  knowledge  of  his 
rights.  He  has  no  access  to  the  publisher's  books, 
and  probably  could  not  understand  them  if  he  had. 
But  in  all  my  experience  of  publishing  and  ac- 
quaintance with  authors,  extending  now  through 
many  years,  I  have  known  of  but  one  case  of  an 
attempt  to  deprive  an  author  of  his  just  share  of 
the  profits  of  the  common  venture.  Is  there  any 
reason  why  a  shoe  factory  should  not  apply  the 
same  principle,  and  give  the  factory  laborer  a  per- 
centage of  the  profits  derived  from  the  sale  of  the 
products  of  the  factory,  except  that  the  capital- 
ist naturally  prefers  to  keep  all  the  profits,  and,  it 


210      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

must  be  added,  the  laborer  is  often  unwilling  to 
run  the  risk  of  the  losses  ? 

The  profit  and  loss  sharing  —  for  if  one  is 
shared,  the  other  must  be  also  —  may  be  accom- 
plished in  any  one  of  several  ways  :  by  a  mutual 
agreement  to  raise  or  lower  wages,  as  the  industry 
is  profitable  or  otherwise  ;  by  a  "  sliding  scale,"  in 
which  wages  are  adjusted  according  to  the  market 
price  of  the  product  of  the  industry ;  by  setting 
aside  a  certain  proportion  of  the  stock,  if  the 
capitalist  is  a  corporation,  and  paying  the  divi- 
dends upon  it  to  the  workingmen ;  or  by  making 
it  easy  for  them  to  buy  the  stock,  and  so  become 
sharers  in  the  enterprise.  The  method  is  a  matter 
of  expediency  and  convenience.  What  is  matter 
of  justice  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  labor 
is  not  a  commodity  ;  that  laborer,  superintendent, 
and  capitalist  are  partners  in  a  common  enter- 
prise ;  and  that  the  wages  of  the  first,  the  salaries 
of  the  second,  and  the  dividends  of  the  third  are 
to  be  adjusted  in  such  a  ratio  that,  as  nearly  as 
possible,  they  may  represent  the  resj^ective  con- 
tributions of  these  three  classes  in  producing  the 
result  of  their  combined  endeavor. 

III.  An  industrial  system  adjusted  to  Christ's 
standard,  so  as  to  produce  by  its  operation  the  best 
men  and  women,  will  either  be  in  itself  educative 
or  will  allow  adequate  leisure  for  educative  pro- 
cesses. The  eight-hour  day  is  a  somewhat  crude 
and  mechanical  method  of  securing  for  the  hand- 
laborer    such  leisure,   but    he    who   criticises    this 


CHRIST S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  211 

method  because  it  is  crude  and  mechanical  should 
point  out  some  better  way  to  secure  the  same  de- 
sirable end.  It  is  true  that  many  brain-workers 
work  more  than  eight  hours  a  day.  The  minister, 
the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  the  merchant,  the  superin- 
tendent, does  not  desire  for  himself  any  such  cast- 
iron  limitation  of  labor  hours.  But  the  work 
which  these  men  are  doing  is  itself  educative. 
They  are  developing  their  minds  by  the  very  pro- 
cess of  their  service.  This  is  not  equally  true  of 
the  day-laborer,  the  farm  hand,  or  the  factory 
worker.  The  latter  soon  acquires  the  requisite 
skill  for  the  one  specific  piece  of  work  intrusted 
to  him ;  the  education  furnished,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  the  machinery  soon  comes  to  an  end,  and  "  the 
hand "  thereafter  finds  in  his  monotonous  toil 
nothing  to  enlarge  or  enrich  his  mental  and  moral 
nature.  If  that  nature  is  to  be  enlarged  or  en- 
riched, if  he  is  to  be  more  than  a  bit  of  animated 
machinery,  his  hours  of  mechanical  toil  must  be  so 
limited  as  to  furnish  him  leisure  and  opportunity 
for  development  of  manly  qualities  outside  his 
workshop.  I  have  already  recognized  the  benefi- 
cent effects  on  manhood  produced  by  the  intro- 
duction of  machinery,  but  the  candid  student  of 
life  must  recognize  also  some  other  effects.  One 
of  these  is  a  certain  narrowing:  influence  on  the 
workingman.  It  is  iui plied  in  the  common  phrase 
used  to  designate  him,  —  "a  hand."  He  is  a 
skilled  but  not  necessarily  an  intelligent  laborer. 
He  can  do  one  thing  excellently  well,  other  things 


212      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

not  at  all.  The  old-time  carpenter  could  build  a 
house  from  foundation  to  roof ;  the  mechanic  in  the 
planing-mill  possesses  no  such  varied  ability. 
Specialization  in  making  him  "  skilled"  limits  his 
skill.     Says  Ruskin  ^ :  — 

"  We  have  much  studied  and  much  perfected  of  late 
the  great  civilized  invention  of  the  division  of  labor, 
only  we  give  it  a  false  name.  It  is  not,  truly  speaking, 
the  labor  that  is  divided,  but  the  men,  —  divided  into 
the  mere  segments  of  men,  —  broken  into  small  frag- 
ments and  crumbs  of  life  ;  so  that  all  the  little  piece  of 
intelligence  that  is  left  in  a  man  is  not  enough  to  make 
a  pin,  or  a  nail,  but  exhausts  itself  in  making  the  point 
of  a  pin  or  the  head  of  a  nail.  Now  it  is  a  good  and 
desirable  thing,  truly,  to  make  many  pins  in  a  day ;  but 
if  we  could  only  see  with  what  crystal  sand  their  points 
were  polished,  —  sand  of  human  soul,  much  to  be  mag- 
nified before  it  can  be  discerned  for  what  it  is,. —  we 
should  think  there  might  be  some  loss  in  it  also.  And 
the  great  cry  that  rises  from  all  our  manufacturing 
cities,  louder  than  their  furnace-blast,  is  all  in  very  deed 
for  this  :  that  we  manufacture  everything  there  except 
men  ;  we  blanch  cotton,  and  strengthen  steel,  and  refine 
sugar,  and  shape  pottery  ;  but  to  brighten,  to  strengthen, 
to  refine,  or  to  form  a  single  living  spirit,  never  enters 
into  our  estimate  of  advantages." 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  truth  in  this 
caustic  indictment.  The  remedy  is  not  by  going 
back  to  hand-work.  That  would  be,  as  we  have- 
already  seen,  going  back  morally  as  well  as  eco- 

1  John  Ivuskin,  Stones  of  Venice,  vol.  ii.  cli.  vi.  §  10,  p.  105. 


CHRIST S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  213 

nomically.  It  is  by  practically  recognizing  the 
fact  that  the  introduction  of  machinery  has  made 
it  possible  for  the  workingman  to  produce  in  an 
hour  what  before  it  required  him  days  to  pro- 
duce, and  by  giving  him  a  j^art  of  the  benefit  of 
this  fact  in  shortened  hours  of  labor  and  length- 
ened hours  for  rest,  recreation,  home,  and  educa- 
tion. What  chance  for  either  has  the  iron-worker 
in  the  furnaces  of  Pennsylvania,  whose  exhausting 
toil  employs  him  for  twelve  hours  a  day,  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  in  the  year  ?  Or  the 
bakers  of  New  York,  who  "  work  fourteen,  sixteen, 
and  even  eighteen  hours  a  day,  in  many  cases 
sleeping  in  the  bake-shop  on  the  bread-troughs  "  ?  ^ 
Or  the  horse-car  conductors,  who  until  very  re- 
cently worked  twelve  and  thirteen  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four,  sometimes  rarely  seeing  their  own  chil- 
dren, except  in  bed  asleep  ?  Or  that  shopgirl,  who 
goes  to  work  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and 
leaves  no  earlier  than  nine  o'clock  at  night;  who 
on  Saturday  remains  until  eleven  or  twelve  o'clock ; 
who  even  on  Sunda^y  works  from  eight  to  twelve  ?  ^ 
The  first  effect  of  the  introduction  of  machinery 
was  to  lengthen,  not  to  shorten,  the  hours  of  labor. 
The  capitalist  thought  that  he  could  not  afford  to 
let  his  expensive  machinery  stand  idle.  Competi- 
tion with  other  capitalists  coerced  him  to  keep  it 

1  Annual  Bejjort  of  the  New  York  State  Factories  and  Inspec- 
tors, 1895. 

-  See  Report  of  the  Rheinliard  Committee,  quoted  in  the  Out- 
look, Nov.  2;],  181)'),  officially  giving-  these  as  the  liours  of  the 
girls  in  all  mercantile  establishments  in  New  York  city. 


214      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

busy.  Competition  among  workingmen  coerced 
them  to  accept  longer  and  still  longer  hours  in 
the  vain  hope  of  earning  larger  wages.  Factory 
hours  were  lengthened  from  ten  to  twelve,  then 
to  fourteen  and  even  sixteen  hours  a  day.  When 
at  length  Parliament  interfered,  the  mills  in  Man- 
chester were  running  from  five  in  the  morning  till 
nine  at  night,  and  the  hands  took  their  breakfast, 
as  best  they  could,  while  attending  the  machin- 
ery. Analogous  lengthening  of  hours  took  place 
in  other  vocations.  Workingmen  had  little  or 
no  enjqyment  of  even  such  simple  and  universal 
gifts  of  God  as  sunshine  and  fresh  air.  "The 
miners  spent  their  days  in  a  strained  lying  posi- 
tion in  the  hot  and  foul  air  of  a  mine,  or  in  a 
strained  standing  position  in  the  equally  hot  and 
equally  foul  air  of  a  mill;  they  lost  their  old 
energy  of  habit,  and  contracted  various  disfigure- 
ments, even  of  form ;  and,  as  Mr.  R.  Guest  re- 
marks in  his  'History  of  the  Cotton  Manufac- 
ture,' in  less  than  a  single  lifetime  the  very  tastes 
of  the  English  workmen  changed.  Instead  of 
their  old  manly  sports  of  wrestling,  quoits,  foot- 
ball, and  the  longbow,  they  betook  themselves 
to  pigeon-fancying,  canary-breeding,  or  tulip-grow- 
ing. They  had  neither  time  nor  spirit  left  for  any- 
thing better,  though  under  an  eight-hours  system 
the  old  English  tastes  would  probably  revive  again, 
as  they  are  now  reviving  in  such  a  remarkable  way 
among  the  workpeople  of  Victoria."  ^     The  over- 

^  John  Rae,  Eight  Hours  for  ]Vork\  p.  11. 


CHRIST'S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  215 

worked  laborer  lost  his  power  of  concentration  and 
his  spirit  of  enterprise.  Working  under  evil  con- 
ditions, with  an  exhausted  body  and  a  discontented 
mind,  his  ambition  was  to  do,  not  as  much,  but  as 
little  as  possible.  There  was  no  real  material 
gain ;  there  was  great  moral  loss.  The  very  foun- 
dations of  England's  free  institutions  were  in  much 
danger  of  being  undermined  by  this  process,  which 
was  undermining  English  character. ^  The  first 
movement  for  reform  did  not  come  from  the  mas- 
ters, nor  from  the  writers  on  political  economy. 
The  writers  insisted  that  the  higher  the  wages  and 
the  longer  the  hours,  the  better  and  the  larger 
would  be  the  product  of  labor.^     The   employers 

^  "  Sir  John  Forteseue,  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  under 
Henry  the  Sixth,  attributes  even  the  existence  of  some  of  our 
free  institutions  to  the  fact  that  the  common  people  of  Eng-land 
enjoyed  a  greater  measure  of  leisure  than  the  common  people  of 
other  countries.  He  was  living-  in  exile  in  France  at  the  time 
he  wrote  the  book  in  which  he  makes  this  remarkable  observa- 
tion, and  he  says  it  would  be  impossible  to  establish  such  a  thing 
as  trial  by  jury  in  that  country,  because  the  French  people  were 
so  fatigued  with  hard  labor  that  'twelve  honest  men  of  the 
neighborhood'  could  not  be  found  who  had  sufficient  energy 
left  in  them  to  discuss  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  an  intricate 
case.  The  English  owed  their  leisure  very  largely,  he  said,  to 
their  pastoral  or  mixed  farming,  which  enabled  them  to  lead  a 
life  more  spiritual  and  refined,  as  did  the  patriarchs  of  old ;  but, 
however  it  came,  it  brought  men  better  possession  of  their  f acid- 
ties  and  capacity  for  the  arts  of  freedom."  —  John  Rae,  Eight 
Hours  for  Work,  p.  S. 

-  "  Houghton,  Betty,  Temple,  Child,  and.  in  their  earlier  writ- 
ings, Josiah  Tucker  and  Arthur  Young,  emphatically  uphold  the 
view  that  high  wages  are  equivalent  to  low  production.  In  order 
to  increase  exertion,  either  actual  diminution  of  wages  is  advo- 


216      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

argued  that  their  profit  was  all  made  in  the  last 
hour,  and  that  to  shorten  the  working  day  would 
involve  letting  the  machines  stand  idle.  They 
contended  that  it  would  not  only  reduce  the  pro- 
fits, but  destroy  them,  and  would  make  it  impos- 
sible to  compete  with  foreign  manufactures.  It 
was  said,  too,  that  shorter  hours  of  labor  would 
demoralize  the  workingmen,  who  would  spend 
the  leisure  thus  granted  to  them  in  idleness  and 
in  drinking.  John  Bright,  the  famous  philanthro- 
pist, but  also  famous  representative  of  the  Man- 
chester school,  an  advocate  of  free  competition 
as  the  cure  of  all  industrial  evils,  used  all  his  in- 
fluence and  his  eloquence,  happily  in  vain,  against 
the  Ten  Hours  Bill.  In  his  speech  against  it  he 
declared  his  belief  that  the  proposition  was  most 
injurious,  even  destructive,  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  country  ;  that  it  was  contrary  to  all  princi- 
ples of  sound  legislation  ;  that  it  was  a  delusion 
practiced   upon  the   working  classes;    that  it  was 

cated,  or,  -what  comes  to  the  same  thing,  a  raising  of  the  taxes 
and  of  the  cost  of  living.  It  is  accepted  as  an  axiom  that  the 
better  off  people  are,  the  less  they  work.  About  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  a  reaction  begins  to  set  in.  In  the  first 
place,  the  opposite  doctrine  first  shows  itself  in  the  polemics  of 
Vanderlint,  Postlethwait,  Forster,  and  Tucker,  and  then  we  find 
it  fully  developed  and  supported  in  the  work  of  Adam  Smith. 
He  maintains  just  the  contrary,  that  high  wages  are  equivalent 
to  great  production,  and  he  bases  this  view  not  only  on  psycholo- 
gical and  physiological  grounds,  but  also  on  experience."  —  L.  J. 
Brentano,  Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production,  p.  2 ;  see, 
also,  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  first  book  of  Adam  Smith's  Wealth 
of  Nations. 


CHRIST S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  217 

advocated  by  those  who  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
economy  of  manufactures ;  that  it  was  one  of 
the  worst  measures  ever  passed  in  the  shape  of 
an  act  of  the  legislature  ;  and  that,  if  it  were 
now  made  law,  the  necessities  of  trade,  and  the 
demands  alike  of  the  workmen  and  of  the  masters, 
would  compel  them  to  retrace  the  steps  they  had 
taken.i 

The  first  man  to  introduce  the  experiment  of 
shorter  hours  appears  to  have  been  Robert  Owen, 
who  in  1816-1828  reduced  the  hours  in  his  cotton 
mills  at  New  Lanark,  first  from  twelve  and  a  half 
to  eleven  and  a  half,  and  finally  to  ten  and  a  half 
hours  a  day.  The  theories  of  the  political  econo- 
mists were  contradicted  by  the  result  of  this  ex- 
periment. The  production  did  not  sensibly  fall 
off  as  a  result  of  the  shortened  hours,  because  they 
were  accompanied  with  greater  personal  exertions, 
a  livelier  energy,  and  a  more  cheerful  spirit  in  the 
operatives.  Despite  the  pro^Dhecies  of  practical 
men,  during  those  twelve  years  Owen  successfully 
competed  with  his  rivals,  whose  factories  were 
working  two,  three,  or  even  four  hours  more  a 
day.  At  length,  in  1847,  the  famous  Ten  Hours 
Bill  was  passed,  reducing  by  law  the  hours  of  labor 
in  the  English  textile  trades  to  this  number.  The 
gloomy  prophecies  of  John   Bright  were  not  ful- 

1  L.  J.  Brentano,  Hours  and  Wages  in  Relation  to  Production, 
p.  23.  See,  also,  the  statement  of  William  Allan,  M.  P.,  that  no 
employers  would  introduce  the  eight-hour  day  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, and  that  nothing-  but  legislation  would  make  it  general.  — 
John  Rae,  Eight  Hours  for  Work,  p.  316. 


218     CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

filled.  The  step  has  never  been  retraced,  and 
England  has  not  lost  her  supremacy  in  the  manu- 
facturing world.  On  the  contrary,  subsequent  re- 
ductions have  confirmed  the  doctrine  that  those 
hours  of  labor  which  conduce  to  the  best  character 
in  the  operatives  are  those  hours  which  conduce  to 
the  best  product  in  the  works.  The  conclusive 
answer  to  the  current  sneer,  "  So  you  expect  ten 
hours'  wages  for  nine  hours'  work,"  is  that  nine 
hours'  work  produces  more  and  better  results  than 
ten  hours,  and  the  indications  at  this  writing  are 
that  eight  hours  will  produce  more  and  better  re- 
sults than  nine.  With  the  shortened  hours  the 
men,  coming  after  breakfast  instead  of  before  it, 
have  more  energy  for  work,  lose  less  time  in  errors 
and  breaks  due  to  over-fatigue,  work  with  more 
physical  energy  and  less  physical  exhaustion,  put 
a  higher  degree  of  brain  efiiciency  into  the  work, 
and,  most  important  of  all,  a  spontaneity  of  energy 
and  an  enthusiasm  of  exertion  due  to  contentment 
and  alacrity  of  spirit,  impossible  under  the  old 
system.  John  Rae,  in  his  monograph,  ''  Eight 
Hours  for  Work,"  gives  abundant  illustrations  of 
the  general  principle  that  shortened  hours  do  not 
necessarily  involve  lessened  product.  To  that  vol- 
ume the  reader  must  be  referred  for  details,  only  a 
few  of  which  can  be  given  here  :  — 

"  Messrs.  S.  H.  Johnson  &  Co.,  of  Stratford, 
London,  reduced  the  hours  at  their  works  some 
five  years  ago  from  fifty-four  to  forty-eight  a  week, 
paying  their  hands  the  same  day  wages  as  before, 


CHRIST'S   STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  219 

and  they  get  more  work  out  now  than  they  got 
then,  without  any  increase  whatever  in  the  cost  of 
production." 

Mr.  J.  Toyn  says  the  Cleveland  iron-miners 
work  much  harder  since  they  have  had  their  hours 
reduced  to  eight,  but  they  feel  the  effects  of  their 
work  much  less.  Speaking  for  himself,  he  used 
to  be  often  in  former  times  so  exhausted  that  he 
had  to  give  u]3  work  for  days  together  in  order  to 
recover ;  but  that  never  happens  now,  although  he 
is  an  older  man. 

"  The  Salford  Iron  Works  are  a  large  establish- 
ment, employing  1,200  hands,  and  employers  who 
said  Mr.  Allan's  experiment  proved  nothing,  be- 
cause it  was  made  in  a  small  establishment,  cannot 
raise  the  same  objection  against  the  experiment  of 
Mr.  Mather's  firm."  "After  a  year's  trial  Mr. 
Mather  has  had  the  results  carefully  .  .  .  com- 
pared with  the  average  of  the  six  preceding  years, 
and  has  found,  exactly  as  Messrs.  Allan,  Messrs. 
Johnson,  and  Messrs.  Short  found,  .  .  .  that  the 
men  have  produced  more  in  the  shorter  hours  than 
they  used  to  do  in  the  longer.  The  work  done 
was  of  the  same  kind.  '  The  production  during 
the  two  periods,'  he  says,  '  has  been  similar  in  char- 
acter ; '  and,  '  as  regards  quantity  of  production, 
there  was  actually  a  larger  output  in  the  trial  year.' 
'The  actual  quantity  produced  was  considerably 
larger  than  in  the  six  preceding  years.'  '  Then  he 
has  found  a  marked  economy  in  gas  and  electric 
lighting,  wear  and  tear  of  machinery,  engines,  gear- 


220      CHRl;STJANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

ing,  etc.,  fire  and  lubricants,  and  miscellaneous 
stores ; '  and,  what  is  not  a  little  curious,  even  in 
the  matter  of  '  the  increased  fixed  charges  due  to 
interest  of  plant  and  machinery,  rent  and  taxes, 
permanent  staff  on  fixed  salaries,  being  employed 
five  hours  less  a  week,  the  balance  of  debtor  and 
creditor  accounts  on  these  expenses  is  unmistak- 
ably in  favor  of  the  trial  year.'  "  ^ 

The  results  in  England  are  confirmed  by  the 
experiences  in  other  countries.  Says  the  Massa- 
chusetts Board  of  Labor  Statistics  in  its  Eej^ort  for 
1881 :  "  It  is  clearly  proved  that  Massachusetts, 
with  ten  hours,  produces  as  much  per  man,  or  per 
loom,  or  i3er  spindle,  equal  grades  being  consid- 
ered, as  other  States  with  eleven  hours  or  more; 
and  also  that  wages  here  rule  as  higli  if  not  higher 
than  in  other  States  where  the  mills  run  long-er 
time."  This  last  fact  is  significant ;  its  testimony 
is  confirmed  elsewhere.  Increase  of  wages,  in- 
crease in  quantity  of  output,  improvement  in  qual- 
ity of  output,  decrease  in  hours  of  labor,  have  gone 
along  together,  simply  because  the  industrial  sys- 
tem which  makes  the  best  man  makes  also  the 
greatest  wealth.  The  testimony  of  England  and 
the  United  States  is  confirmed  on  a  large  scale  by 
that  of  Australia,  where  the  eight-hour  day  has 
been  by  law  established.  The  habits  of  working- 
men  have  improved,  not  deteriorated :  annexed  to 
the  cottages  are  little  gardens,  owned  and  culti- 

^  John  Rae,  Eight  Hours  for  Work,  pp.   55,  50,  and  Preface, 
p.  viii. 


CHRIST'S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  221 

vatecl  in  leisure  hours  by  the  workingmen ;  cost  of 
superintendence  is  reduced,  because  the  men  work 
as  energetically  without  supervision  as  before  they 
did  with  it ;  there  is  less  drunkenness,  less  crime, 
more  intelligence,  a  higher  grade  of  virtue. 

IV.  An  essential  condition  of  human  well-being 
is  a  pure,  good  home.  It  is  half  a  century  since 
Charles  Dickens  made,  in  *'  The  Old  Curiosity 
Shop,"  his  eloquent  appeal  to  legislators  to  remem- 
ber this  fundamental  fact :  — 

"  Oh,  if  those  who  rule  the  destinies  of  nations  would 
but  remember  this  ;  if  they  would  but  think  how  hard 
it  is  for  the  very  poor  to  have  engendered  in  their 
hearts  that  love  of  home  from  which  all  domestic 
virtues  spring,  when  they  live  in  dense  and  squalid 
masses  where  social  decency  is  lost,  or  rather  never 
found;  if  they  would  but  turn  aside  from  the  wide 
thoroughfares  and  great  houses,  and  strive  to  improve 
the  wretched  dwellings  in  byways  where  only  poverty 
may  walk,  —  many  low  roofs  would  point  more  truly  to 
the  sky  than  the  loftiest  steeple  that  now  rears  proudly 
up  from  the  midst  of  guilt  and  crime  and  horrible  dis- 
ease, to  mock  them  by  its  contrast.  In  hollow  voices, 
from  workhouse,  hospital,  and  jail,  this  truth  is  preached 
from  day  to  day  and  has  been  proclaimed  for  years.  It 
is  no  light  matter,  —  no  outcry  from  the  working  vul- 
gar, —  no  mere  question  of  the  people's  health  and  com- 
fort, that  may  be  whistled  down  on  Wednesday  nights. 
In  love  of  home  the  love  of  country  has  its  rise ;  and 
who  are  the  truer  patriots  or  the  better  in  time  of 
need,  —  those  who  venerate  the  land,  owning  its  wood 
and  stream  and  earth  and  all  that  they  produce?  or 


222      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

those   who    love  their  country,  boasting  not   a   foot  of 
ground  in  all  its  wide  domain  ?  "  -^ 

To  maintain  a  home  under  the  conditions  in 
which  many  people  are  housed,  not  only  in  the 
slums  of  our  great  cities  but  in  the  tenements  of 
many  of  our  factory  towns,  is  quite  impossible.  ^ 

Experience  has  demonstrated,  both  in  England 
and  in  America,  that  the  housing  of  the  poor 
cannot  be  left  to  be  determined  by  free  competi- 
tion. Parliament  has  been  compelled  to  interfere 
in  England,  and  the  legislatures  in  this  country, 
to  coerce  reluctant  landlords  to  furnish  their  ten- 
ants with  air,  light,  water,  and  adequate  sewerage. 
Philanthropic  capitalists  have  proved  that  it  is 
possible  to  build  and  maintain  model  tenements 
for  self-respecting  tenants,  under  conditions  which 
will  pay  a  fair  interest  on  the  money  invested,  and 
will  make  some  measure  of  home  life  possible  even 
in  the  heart  of  a  great  city.  The  Improved  Dwell- 
ings Company  of  Brooklyn,  organized  by  Mr.  A. 
T.  White,  lias  paid  eight  per  cent,  net  on  the 
investment ;  and  the  Improved  Dwellings  Asso- 
ciation of  New  York,  in  spite  of  a  blunder  which 
added  to  the  cost  of  the  building,  have  paid  five 
per  cent,  on  the  investment.  I  believe  that  both 
the  Peabody  and  the  Waterlow  improved  buildings 

^   The  Old  Curiosity  Shop,  cli.  xxxviii. 

2  For  description  of  tenement  houses  see  Report  of  the  Tene- 
ment House  Committee,  transmitted  to  the  Legislature  of  New 
York,  January  17,  1895;  Jacob  Riis,  How  the  Other  Half  Lives ; 
Robert  A.  Woods  and  others ;   The  Poor  in  Great  Cities,  eh.  ii. 


CUEIST'S    STANDARD    OF    VALUES.  223 

of  London  make  a  reasonable  return  for  the  cap- 
ital invested. 

Cheap  and  rapid  transit  is  making  it  possible 
for  workingmen  to  live  in  the  suburbs  of  the  great 
cities,  in  homes  of  their  own,  each  with  its  plot  of 
ground  about  it.  The  loan  and  building  associa- 
tions, when  honorably  conducted,  as  has  been  nota- 
bly the  case  in  Philadelphia,  have  enabled  the 
thrifty  workingman  to  construct  his  own  home  out 
of  his  wages,  and  so  become  his  own  landlord. 
Thus,  gradually,  though  far  too  gradually,  legis- 
lation, curbing  criminal  greed  ;  philanthropy,  con- 
tent with  moderate  return  for  capital  invested  ; 
municipal  ownership  of  railroads,  reducing  railroad 
fares  to  actual  cost  of  transportation  ;  a  spirit  of 
thrift,  encouraged  by  fair  wages ;  moderate  hours 
and  a  hope  of  "getting  on," — are  combining  to 
destroy  the  slum  and  make  possible  homes  for  the 
poor,  such  as  Charles  Dickens  sighed  for  fifty 
years  ago.  It  is  in  this  direction,  not  in  tem- 
l^erance  saloons,  coffee-houses  and  clubs,  which 
call  the  husband  and  father  away  from  the  sorry 
substitute  for  a  home  and  leave  the  wife  and 
children  to  endure  it,  that  the  civilizing  influences 
are  to  be  found  without  which  greater  wages  will 
bring  but  little  advantage. 

The  residt  of  the  experiments  of  the  j^ast  half 
century  is  to  demonstrate  that  the  processes  which 
destroy  men  do  not  produce  wealth ;  that  methods 
which  are  ethically  unjust  are  not  economically 
wise  ;  that  the  transference    of  drudgery  to  ma- 


224      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

chinery  increases  the  demand  for  human  labor ; 
and  that  adequate  wages,  reasonable  hours,  and 
pure  and  educative  influences  in  the  life,  promoting 
the  welfare  of  the  laborer  and  of  the  community, 
promote  also  the  prosperity  of  the  capitalist  and 
employer.  The  precepts  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
principles  of  a  sound  political  economy  coincide. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Christ's  law  for  the  settlement  of  con- 
troversies :   PERSONAL  CONTROVERSIES. 

Those  who  have  walked  on  one  of  the  great 
giaciers  of  the  Alps  will  remember  that  the  glacier 
is  pierced  by  great  crevasses.  Some  of  them  are 
thousands  of  feet  in  depth,  some  of  them  shallow ; 
some  of  them  are  so  narrow  that  one  can  easily 
step  across,  some  so  wide  that  one  must  go  around 
to  continue  one's  journey,  or  must  cross  the  chasm 
by  an  artificial  bridge.  So  human  society  is  divided 
by  crevasses,  —  some  broad,  some  narrow,  some 
deep,  some  shallow.  Sometimes  these  separations 
are  caused  by  personal  enmity ;  sometimes  by  a 
real  or  apparent  conflict  of  interests ;  sometimes 
by  deliberate,  purposeful  wrong-doing ;  sometimes 
by  mere  uncongeniality  ;  sometimes  by  religious 
antipathies.  These  chasms  in  society  Christ  bids 
his  followers  do  what  they  can  to  close,  that 
humanity  may  be  truly  one.  There  are  certain 
great  vital  truths  which  underlie  the  teachings 
of  every  great  instructor.  They  are  the  postu- 
lates on  which  he  builds.  The  fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  man  are  the  postulates  of 
Christ's  instruction,  and  the  realization  in  human 


226     CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

life  of  these  ideals  is  the  end  of  his  ministry. 
Therefore  all  these  separations  which  divide  men 
into  cliques  and  classes,  and  set  them  into  antag- 
onism to  one  another,  are  against  the  spirit  of 
Christ;  they  are  hindrances  to  the  coming  and 
the  perfecting  of  his  kingdom.  To  repair  these 
fractures,  to  bring  together  those  who  were  before 
separated,  is  to  promote  Christ's  kingdom.  The 
time  is  coming  when  all  mankind  will  recognize 
that  such  peace-makers  are  God's  children,  and 
are  doing  God's  work.  They  shall  be  called  the 
children  of  God. 

Christ  not  only  tells  his  followers  that  they 
are  to  be  peace-makers,  but  he  gives  very  ex- 
plicit directions  how  they  can  make  peace.  In 
this  and  the  two  following  chapters  I  shall  at- 
tempt to  interpret  these  directions,  applying  them, 
first,  to  personal  controversies,  then  more  fully  to 
industrial  and  international  controversies. 

One  is  conscious  that  one  has  wronged  a  neigh- 
bor, or  is  thought  by  a  neighbor  to  have  wronged 
him.  Christ  lays  it  down  as  a  principle  that  it 
is  the  first  and  more  imperative  duty  of  the  per- 
son thus  suspected  by  others  or  himself  to  seek 
reconciliation.  "If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the 
altar,  and  there  rememberest  that  thy  brother 
hath  aught  against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift 
before  the  altar  and  go  thy  way;  first  be  recon- 
ciled to  thy  brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy 
gift."  1  '*  If  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee;" 
1  Matt.  V.  23,  24. 


LAW  FOR  PERSONAL    CONTROVERSIES.      227 

if,  from  his  point  of  view,  you  have  done  him  a 
wrong  ;  if  he  entertains  any  complaint,  reasonable 
or  unreasonable,  — "  leave  there  thy  gift  before 
the  altar."  To  seek  reconciliation  with  an  of- 
fended brother  is  the  first  duty  ;  it  takes  prece- 
dence even  of  the  sacred  obligations  of  divine 
worship. 

It  is  the  first  duty  of  the  person  suspected,  it 
is  equally  the  first  duty  of  the  person  suspecting, 
the  first  duty  of  the  person  who  has  wronged, 
equally  the  first  duty  of  the  person  who  has  suf- 
fered the  wrong,  to  seek  reconciliation.  Each  is 
to  be  the  peace-maker ;  each  is  to  take  the  first 
step  toward  peace.  Neither  may  wait  for  the 
other.  "  Moreover,  if  thy  brother  shall  tresj^ass 
against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault  between 
thee  and  him  alone ;  if  he  shall  hear  thee,  thou 
hast  gained  thy  brother.  But  if  he  will  not  hear 
thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that 
in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word 
may  be  established.  And  if  he  shall  neglect  to 
hear  them,  tell  it  unto  the  church  ;  but  if  he  neg- 
lect to  hear  the  church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as 
an  heathen  man  and  a  publican."  ^  I  shall,  in  a 
subsequent  chapter,  interpret  and  apply  this  teach- 
ing a  little  more  fully.  Here  it  must  suffice  to 
notice  the  three  successive  steps  which  Christ  pre- 
scribes before  one  of  his  followers  may  regard 
the  breach  between  himself  and  his  neighbor  irre- 
parable. First,  he  is  to  go  alone  to  his  neighbor 
1  Matt,  xviii.  15-17. 


228      CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

and  tell  him  his  fault  in  private  speech  with  hira. 
There  is  to  be  no  false  pretense,  no  hypocrisy,  no 
dissimulation  of  love,  no  crying  Peace !  peace ! 
when  there  is  no  peace,  no  playing  at  words  wdth 
double  meanings ;  no  saying,  It  is  of  no  conse- 
quence, if  it  is  of  consequence ;  no  saying,  I  do  not 
care,  if  we  do  care.  There  is  to  be  absolute  can- 
dor, a  speaking  of  the  truth  in  love,  and  this  as 
part  of  a  sincere  effort  at  reconciliation.  But  if 
this  fails,  the  Christian  follower  is  not  to  despair. 
He  is  to  take  with  him  one  or  two  whom  both 
trust,  love,  believe  in,  that  their  more  impartial 
spirit  may  repair  the  breach  which  he  has  failed 
to  repair.  If  this  fail,  then  he  is  to  report  his  dif- 
ficulty to  his  brethren  in  the  fellowship  of  the  gos- 
pel, not  to  appease  his  wrath,  not  to  satisfy  pride 
by  putting  himself  in  the  right  and  his  neighbor 
in  the  wrong,  but  to  gain  by  pacific  measures  his 
brother  again,  to  reestablish  fraternal  relations 
between  the  two.  If  that  fails,  then  what  ?  "  Let 
him  be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  pub- 
lican." The  Jew  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  heathen  and  the  publican.  Many  Christians 
seem  to  think  that  they  forgive  their  enemy  when 
they  treat  him  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  publican. 
"  I  do  not  wish  him  any  evil ;  I  would  not  injure 
him ;  I  even  wish  him  well :  but  I  want  nothing 
more  to  do  with  him."  This  is  a  common  utter- 
ance of  what  men  imagine  to  be  a  forgiving 
spirit.  What  Christ  inflicts  as  the  penalty  for 
wrong-doing,    his   followers   proffer   as   their   for- 


LAW  FOE  PERSONAL    CONTROVERSIES.      229 

giveness.  But  even  yet  we  have  not  reached  the 
full  meaning  of  this  pregnant  passage.  Social 
excommunication  was  the  Jewish  method  of  treat- 
ing the  heathen  and  the  publicans,  but  it  was 
not  Christ's  method.  He  pitied  them,  loved  them, 
sought  them,  received  them,  by  patient  love  en- 
deavored to  heal  the  breach  between  himself  and 
them.  If  we  are  to  treat  the  irreconcilable  enemy 
as  Christ  treated  the  heathen  man  and  the  pub- 
lican, we  shall  ever  pity  and  love,  and  always  be 
ready  for  reconciliation,  if  ever  reconciliation  be 
possible.  Irreconcilable  enmity  is  unknown  to 
Christ. 

Perhaps  we  have  tried  this  plan,  and  it  did  not 
succeed.  We  tried  it  once,  and  the  wrong  was 
repeated  ;  a  second  time,  and  it  was  again  repeated. 
Finally  we  say.  It  does  no  good  ;  I  have  tried  it 
half  a  dozen  times,  and  I  am  tired.  But  Christ 
does  not  permit  his  disciples  to  become  tired  of 
forgiving.  "  Then  came  Peter  unto  him  and  said, 
Lord,  how  oft  shall  my  brother  sin  against  me, 
and  I  forgive  him?  until  seven  times?  Jesus 
saith  unto  him,  I  say  not  unto  thee.  Until  seven 
times ;  but.  Until  seventy  times  seven."  i  Even 
this  is  not  to  be  taken  mathematically ;  even  four 
hundred  and  ninety  times  is  not  to  exhaust  for- 
giving kindness.  The  love,  the  patience,  the  for- 
giveness, the  readiness  for  reconciliation,  —  these 
are  to  be  inexhaustible. 

1  Matt,  xviii.  21,  22;  Luke  xvii.  3,  4.     Seven  is  a  symbolic 
number  :   70  X  7  =  continuous  and  unending  forgiveness. 


230      CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

But  perhaps  the  case  is  not  one  of  personal 
enmity,  but  of  incompatibility.  The  one  neighbor 
has  done  no  wrong  to  the  other,  but  the  two  do  not 
like  each  other.  They  do  not  quarrel,  but  they 
live  apart,  because  they  do  not  get  on  well  together. 
Such  a  separation  is  also  a  breach  in  human 
brotherhood.  In  the  parable  of  the  good  Samari- 
tan, Christ  suggests  his  remedy  for  such  a  breach. 
For  such  a  breach  existed  between  the  Jews  and 
the  Samaritans.  They  were  not  at  war,  but  they 
were  uncongenial,  prejudiced  the  one  against  the 
other.  The  Jews  had  no  dealings  with  the  Samari- 
tans.-^ To  men  thus  prejudiced  against  and  es- 
tranged from  their  neighbors  Christ  told  the  story 
of  a  certain  man  ^  who  went  down  to  Jericho  and 
fell  among  thieves  and  was  robbed ;  and  a  priest 
came  that  way  and  saw  him,  and  passed  by  on  the 
other  side ;  and  a  Levite  came  that  way  and  saw 
him,  and  passed  by  on  the  other  side  ;  and  then  a 
Samaritan  came  and  bound  up  his  wounds  and 
provided  for  him.  The  point  of  this  parable  is  in 
the  application.  Christ  says :  "  Go  thou  and  do 
likewise."  What  does  that  mean  ?  It  means  that 
to  render  a  service  to  any  one  is  the  best  remedy 
for  prejudice  against  him.  To  cure  hostility  to 
the  Chinese,  teach  in  a  Chinese  Sunday-school. 

Perhaps  the  difficulty  which  separates  neighbor 
from  neighbor  is  more  than  a  personal  quarrel, 
more  than  personal  prejudice  ;  it  is  a  case  of  con- 
science. The  minister  believes  in  a  new  theology, 
1  John  iv.  9.  2  Luke  x.  25-37. 


LAW   FOE   PERSONAL    CONTROVERSIES.      231 

his  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  an  old  theology,  and 
they  forbid  his  teaching  according  to  his  convic- 
tions. The  minister  believes  in  the  new  criticism 
and  his  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  an  infallible 
Book,  and  they  will  not  consent  that  he  should 
teach  according  to  his  understanding  of  the  Bible. 
They  begin  to  declare  war  against  him.  What 
shall  one  do  who  thus  finds  himself  intellectually 
separated  from  his  church?  Shall  he  withdraw 
from  his  church?  No!  Shall  he  fight  for  the 
right  to  remain  in  his  church  ?  No !  Christ's 
teaching  and  his  example  both  show  with  clear- 
ness the  path.  The  divisions  which  separate  the 
church  of  Christ  into  sects,  and  the  wars  which 
set  it  in  hostile  camps,  each  arrayed  against  the 
other,  have  been  of  incalculable  injury  to  the  cause 
of  Christ.  He  who  separates  himself  from  the 
church  of  his  youth  because  he  does  not  believe 
some  part  of  its  creed,  and  he  who  remains  in  it 
to  fight  against  his  brethren,  even  in  a  defensive 
warfare,  contributes  to  this  evil.  He  helps  to 
divide  the  body  of  Christ.  The  believer  in  new 
theology  is  not  intellectually  and  spiritually  more 
at  variance  from  the  believer  in  old  theology,  nor 
the  believer  in  the  new  criticism  more  at  variance 
with  the  believer  in  the  infallible  Book,  than  Christ 
was  with  the  teachers  of  Judaism  in  the  syna- 
gogues. But  Christ  remained  a  Jew,  teaching  in 
the  synagogues  and  in  the  Temple,  until  the  Jews 
excommunicated  him.  He  did  not  say,  I  will  not 
fellowship  you  ;  I  withdraw  from  you.     He  did  not 


232      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

say,  I  do  not  believe  you  wish  to  fellowship  me  ; 
therefore  I  withdraw  from  you.  He  did  not  say, 
I  cannot  teach  what  you  teach  nor  as  you  teach, 
therefore  I  cannot  loyally  remain  in  your  church. 
He  taught  revolutionary  doctrine  in  the  synagogues 
imtil  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  determined  to 
disfellowship  him.  But  then  he  did  not  resist. 
He  quietly  transferred  his  platform  from  the  desk 
in  the  synagogue  to  the  prow  of  a  fishing-boat  on 
the  lake,  a  hillock  in  the  fields,  or  a  rock  on  the 
mountain  side.  What  he  did  himself  he  told  his 
disciples  to  do.  "  When  they  persecute  you  in 
this  city,  flee  ye  into  another."  ^  Go  on  with  your 
work  where  you  are  —  this  is  the  meaning  of  his 
direction  —  as  long  as  you  can.  Antagonize  no 
one.  Do  not  look  for  antagonism  in  any  one. 
But  if  ever  the  antagonism  becomes  so  great  that 
you  can  no  longer  do  Christ's  work  where  you  are, 
go  quietly  elsewhere  and  continue  your  work.  The 
New  Testament  condemns  schism  quite  as  severely 
as  it  condemns  heresy.  He  who  separates  himself 
from  the  church  of  his  fathers,  because  he  con- 
ceives that  he  no  longer  sympathizes  with  its 
creed,  is  as  truly  guilty  of  schism  as  he  who  intro- 
duces the  war  spirit  into  the  church  of  his  fathers 
by  fighting  to  remain  in  that  church  after  it  has  ex- 
pressed an  unmistakable  wish  to  have  him  depart. 

Perhaps  the  conditions  are  reversed.     The  neigh- 
bor is  a  heretic.     He  does  not  believe  in  the  creed 
of  the  church ;  not  even  in  what  its  doctors  regard 
1  Matt.  X,  23. 


LAW  FOE  PERSONAL    CONTROVERSIES.      233 

as  the  essentials  of  that  creed.  He  does  not  be- 
lieve in  the  apostolic  succession,  or  in  the  final 
authority  of  the  Bible,  or  in  the  permanent  value 
of  the  sacraments,  or  in  the  Nicene  definition  of 
the  Person  of  Christ.  Shall  he  then  be  turned  out 
of  the  church  and  of  Christian  fellowship  ? 

"  And  John  answered  and  said,  Master,  we  saw  one 
casting  out  devils  in  thy  name,  and  we  forbade  him, 
because  he  followeth  not  with  us.  And  Jesus  said 
unto  him,  Forbid  him  not ;  for  he  that  is  not  against 
us  is  for  us."  ^ 

The  lesson  is  clear :  whoever  is  trying  in  the 
name  of  Christ  to  cast  out  the  evil  there  is  in  the 
world  is  a  worthy  comrade  for  every  one  else  who 
is  trying  to  do  the  same  work  in  the  same  way. 
There  is  one  bond  of  Christian  union,  and  only 
one,  —  loyalty  to  Christ ;  not  to  a  definition  of 
Christ,  that  is  to  a  creed ;  not  to  a  form  of  Chris- 
tian worship,  that  is  to  a  ritual ;  not  to  a  special 
organization  founded  to  do  Christ's  work,  that  is 
to  a  church  order:  but  to  Christ.  Whoever  is 
trying  to  do  Christ's  work  in  Christ's  spirit  is  a 
fellow-worker  with  Christ,  and  every  Christian 
should  be  willing  to  work  in  fellowship  with  every 
other  fellow-worker  with  Christ.  It  would  take 
me  too  far  from  the  specific  object  of  this  book  to 
discuss  here  the  question  of  Christian  union  ;  it 
must  suffice  to  say  that  Christ  recognizes  no  other 
basis  for  such  union  than  personal  loyalty  to  him. 
1  Luke  ix.  49,  50 ;  Mark  ix.  38-40. 


234      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  substitution  of  any  other  basis  is  the  parent  of 
schism. 

But  there  is  a  breach  harder  to  cure  than  any  or 
all  of  these.  One  can  seek  forgiveness  for  a  real 
or  fancied  wrong,  proffer  it  for  a  wrong  which  he 
has  suffered,  conquer  a  personal  prejudice,  see  in 
the  bigot  on  the  one  side  or  the  heretic  on  the 
other  a  brother  Christian,  more  easily  than  he  can 
forgive  a  wrong  perpetrated  upon  another  whom 
one  loves.  Then  loyalty  seems  to  require  at  our 
hands  vindication  of  the  wronged  one.  When  it 
is  the  wife,  the  child,  the  friend,  who  has  been 
unjustly  treated,  loyalty  seems  to  say.  Submit  not 
to  that.  But  even  to  one  thus  righteously  angry 
Christ's  teaching  and  example  have  a  word  of 
explicit  instruction :  — 

"  And  [he]  sent  messengers  before  his  face  ;  and  they 
went  and  entered  into  a  village  of  the  Samaritans  to 
make  ready  for  him.  And  they  did  not  receive  him, 
because  his  face  was  as  though  he  would  go  to  Jeru- 
salem. And  when  his  disciples,  James  and  John,  saw 
this,  they  said,  Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  command  fire  to 
come  down  from  heaven  and  consume  them,  even  as 
Elias  did  ?  But  he  turned  and  rebuked  them,  and  said, 
Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of.  For  the 
Son  of  man  is  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to 
save  them.     And  they  went  to  another  village."  ^ 

To  refuse  hospitality  in  that  age  was  an  open 
insult.  And  it  was  because  the  Samaritan  village 
had  thus  insulted  Christ  that  the  disciples  wished 

1  Luke  ix.  52-56. 


LAW  FOR   PERSONAL    CONTROVERSIES.      235 

to  call  fire  down  upon  it.  It  was  their  loyalty 
which  was  angered  ;  it  was  their  love  which  wished 
to  avenge  their  Master.  But  their  Master  told 
them  that  they  did  not  understand  ;  that  not  even 
love  was  to  be  vengeful ;  that  even  love  was  to  be 
patient,  gentle,  forbearing.  Two  years  later  these 
very  disciples  went  into  this  inhospitable  Samaria 
and  planted  churches,  and  there  some  of  the  ear- 
liest victories  for  the  Gospel  were  won,  vindicating 
the  name  of  Christ,  not  by  death-dealing  fire  from 
heaven,  but  by  life-giving  fire  from  human  hearts, 
which  God  had  inspired  with  his  own  love.  If 
there  ever  was  a  man  who  might  justly  have  been 
stricken  down  by  a  bolt  from  heaven  it  was  Judas 
Iscariot.  His  betrayal  had  cost  the  death  of  his 
Lord;  had  brought  an  end  to  the  hopes  of  the 
disciples;  had  shut  them  up  to  darkness  and 
despair  in  the  house  of  death  ;  had  pierced  the 
mother's  heart  with  anguish ;  and  yet  the  last 
word  of  Christ  to  Judas  Iscariot  was  "  friend." 

But  the  wrongdoer  has  not  repented,  and  we 
think  that  we  cannot  forgive  him,  because  God 
does  not  forgive  men  until  they  have  repented. 
Thus  false  ethics  grow  out  of  false  theology.  For- 
giveness is  not  dependent  on  repentance.  The 
effect  of  forgiveness  is  ;  the  act  of  forgiveness  is 
not.  "  While  we  were  yet  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  God  for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us 
quickened  us  together  with  Christ."  Does  he 
love  us  and  forgive  us,  and  offer  to  cleanse  us 
from  our  sins  and  lift  us  back  into  a  higher  and 


236      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

diviner  life,  because  we  have  repented?  Not  at 
all.  We  repent  because  he  forgives  us  and  lifts 
us  up  into  a  higher  life.  The  soul  cannot  get  the 
benefit  of  God's  forgiveness  if  it  shuts  God  out ; 
and  a  man  cannot  get  the  benefit  of  his  friend  if 
he  shuts  his  friend  out.  One  clenched  fist  does 
not  make  a  battle,  and  one  open  palm  does  not 
make  a  greeting.  But  the  Christian  is  to  reach 
out  the  open  palm,  and  whenever  it  is  clasped  on 
the  other  side,  then  the  friendship  is  reestablished. 
"  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  you^  live 
peaceably  with  all  men." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Christ's  law  for  the  settlement  of  contro- 
versies:  INTERNATIONAL   CONTROVERSIES. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  endeavored  to 
deduce  from  Christ's  j^ersonal  directions  to  his 
disciples  certain  general  principles  to  be  recog- 
nized by  his  followers  in  the  settlement  of  personal 
controversies.  It  is  my  object  in  this  and  a  suc- 
ceeding chapter  to  show  that  these  principles 
are  equally  applicable  to  the  settlement  of  con- 
troversies between  nations  and  between  classes. 
Indeed,  the  history  of  civilization  is  to  no  incon- 
siderable extent  the  history  of  the  very  gradual 
adoption  of  these  principles  by  Christendom,  and 
their  incorporation,  first  into  custom  and  then  into 
law.  In  order  to  trace  the  history  of  this  adop- 
tion, it  is  first  necessary  to  state  a  little  more 
in  detail  the  principles  especially  applicable  to 
controversies  between  bodies  of  men,  —  whether 
between  different  nations  or  between  different  or- 
ganizations in  the  same  nation.  These  principles 
are  two,  a  negative  and  a  positive  one,  —  first,  the 
abandonment  of  force  as  a  method  of  settling- 
controversies  ;  second,  the  substitution  therefor  of 
arbitrament  by  an  impartial  tribunal. 


238     CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

The  first  principle  finds  its  clearest  statement 
in  the  following  passage :  "  But  I  say  unto  you, 
that  ye  resist  not  evil ;  but  whosoever  shall  smite 
thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also. 
And  if  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law  and  take 
away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also.  And 
whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with 
him  twain."  ^  A  careful  scrutiny  of  this  direction 
makes  it  clear  that  it  covers  the  three  forms  of 
wrong  under  which  men  suffer,  —  personal  violence, 
legal  injustice,  governmental  oppression.  To  smite 
on  the  right  cheek  is  an  act  of  personal  violence  ; 
to  attempt  by  law  to  take  away  one's  coat  is  an  act 
of  legal  injustice ;  to  impress  one  to  go  a  mile 
in  public  service  without  compensation  is  an  act 
of  governmental  oppression.^  Such  impressment, 
permitted  by  modern  society  only  in  times  of  war, 
was  formerly  allowed  to  the  government  in  time 
of  peace.  Christ,  referring  to  these  forms  of 
wrong,  —  personal  violence,  legal  injustice,  gov- 
ernmental oppression,  —  bids  his  followers  oppose 
to  them  only  a  passive  non-resistance.  He  sets  in 
operation  a  new  force  in  the  world,  what  Milton 
has  well  called  "  the  irresistible  might  of  meek- 
ness." This  might  was  before  Christ's  time  almost 
absolutely  unknown. 

If  these  instructions  were  not  in  themselves 
perfectly  clear,  they  are  made  so  by  the  inter- 
pretation which  he  has  put  upon  them  by  his  life. 

1  Matt.  V.  39-41. 

2  See  Alford's  Greek  Testament  on  the  passag^e. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  239 

The  despotic  government  under  which  he  lives 
sends  out  its  officers  to  arrest  him.  He  surrenders 
himself  and  is  led  away.  And  when  one  of  his 
own  disciples  would  resist  the  band,  though  he 
says,  "I  could  have  twelve  legions  of  angels  to 
rescue  me,"  he  will  not.  He  condemns  resistance. 
"  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the 
sword."  He  is  brought  into  the  court.  It  was  a 
well-settled  principle  in  the  Hebrew  law,  as  it  is 
with  us,  that  a  man  accused  could  not  be  called 
upon  to  criminate  himself.  Those  who  accused 
Christ  were  unable  to  find  any  two  witnesses  who 
would  agree  in  their  testimony  against  him,  and 
finally  the  High  Priest  calls  Jesus  to  the  stand 
and  administers  the  oath  to  him :  "  I  adjure  thee 
by  the  living  God  that  thou  tell  us  whether  thou 
be  the  Son  of  God  or  no."  He  protests :  "  If  I 
tell  you,  you  will  not  believe  me."  Yet  he  sub- 
mits, testifies  under  oath  that  he  is  the  Son  of 
God,  and  is  led  away  to  his  death.  In  this  trial, 
and  following  it,  he  is  beaten,  spit  upon,  scourged. 
He  protests,  but  does  not  resist.  To  each  of  these 
three  forms  of  wrong  he  submits,  —  the  wrong  of 
a  despotic  government,  the  wrong  of  a  court  of 
law,  the  wrong  of  personal  violence. 

Is  there,  then,  to  be  no  resistance  to  wrong- 
doing? Many  have  adduced  this  principle  from 
these  words.  And  yet  Christ  sometimes  did  resist 
wrong-doing.  When  he  went  up  to  the  Temple, 
a  corrupt  and  wicked  government  had  put  cattle 

1  Matt.  xxvi.  52,  53. 


240      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

in  the  one  court  where  the  Gentiles  might  go.  He 
did  not  merely  utter  a  verbal  protest  against  it ; 
he  wove  a  whip  of  small  cords  of  the  straw  that 
was  at  his  feet  and  drove  the  frightened  traders 
from  the  Temple,  and  with  them  the  cattle,  and 
overturned  the  money-changers'  tables,  and  left  the 
money  to  roll  about  the  floor.  When  the  Temple 
band  came  to  arrest  him,  and  his  disciples  were 
asleep  before  the  gate,  he  went  forward  and  put 
himself  between  the  band  and  the  disciples.  They 
fell  backward  to  the  ground,  it  is  said.  For  the 
moment  he  confronted  the  guard  and  held  it  at 
bay,  that  his  disciples  might  escape,  and  then,  and 
not  till  then,  surrendered  himself.  Christ  used 
force  to  defend  others,  but  never  to  defend  him- 
self. The  fundamental  principle  in  Christ's  teach- 
ing is  this :  Love  may  use  force ;  selfishness  may 
not.  There  is,  says  the  Book  of  Revelation,  a 
wrath  of  the  Lamb.  There  is  a  combativeness  of 
love  which  is  legitimate.  If  a  highwayman  de- 
mands my  purse,  I  may  give  it  to  him  rather  than 
take  his  life.  But  if  he  assaults  my  wife,  or  my 
children,  whom  God  hath  put  in  my  keeping,  that 
is  another  matter ;  then,  if  I  do  not  defend  those 
whom  God  has  intrusted  to  my  defense,  I  shall  be 
recreant  and  a  coward.  Our  lives  are  so  inter- 
twined that  it  is  often  impossible  to  tell  whether 
one  is  defending  himself  or  another.  It  is  spirit, 
not  rule  or  regulation,  which  Christ  prescribes,  and 
this  is  the  spirit :  Love  may  fight ;  selfishness 
may  not. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  241 

To  a  considerable  extent,  modern  civilization 
accepts  this  principle.  In  a  barbaric  community 
every  man  carries  a  j)istol  in  his  hip  pocket.  In 
civilized  communities  he  does  not.  We  trust  other 
men  to  be  our  defenders  and  protectors.  Disinter- 
estedness defends  the  unarmed  from  wrong-doers. 
Even  pride,  passion,  and  selfishness  go  unarmed. 

This  is  the  negative  principle.  But  this  is  only 
a  preparation  for  the  affirmative  principle.  Christ 
does  not  leave  any  to  go  without  a  remedy,  nor 
controversies  to  remain  without  a  settlement.  He 
tells  his  disciples  to  substitute  for  force  peaceful 
arbitrament  by  an  impartial  tribunal.  "  If  thy 
brother  shall  trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him 
his  fault  between  thee  and  him  alone,"  ^  —  that  is 
conciliation ;  "  if  he  will  not  hear  thee,  then  take 
with  thee  one  or  two  more,  that  in  the  mouth  of 
two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  may  be  estab- 
lished,"—  that  is  arbitration  ;  "if  he  shall  neglect 
to  hear  thee,  tell  it  unto  the  church," — that  is 
law;  "but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  church,  let 
him  be  unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publi- 
can,"—  that  is  non-intercourse.  This  is  Christ's 
method  of  settling  controversies.  The  principle 
of  non-resistance  does  not  stand  alone.  It  is 
coupled  with  the  principle  of  impartial  arbitra- 
tion. The  surrender  of  personal  force  as  a  means 
of  self -protection  is  accompanied  by  the  principle 
of  appeal  to  the  sense  of  justice,  —  first  in  the 
wrong-doer,  then  in   an  amicably  chosen  tribunal, 

1  Matt,  xviii.  15-17. 


242      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

last  of  all,  in  the  community.  In  the  settlement 
of  personal  controversies  this  means,  first,  personal 
negotiation ;  second,  friendly  mediation ;  third,  a 
leoal  tribunal.  In  the  settlement  of  industrial 
controversies  it  means,  first,  conciliation ;  then 
arbitration ;  third,  appeal  to  the  community.  In 
the  settlement  of  international  controversies  it 
means,  first,  diplomacy  ;  second,  international  me- 
diation ;  third,  an  international  tribunal.  And 
in  all  these  it  means  the  abolition  of  the  pagan 
system  which  makes  the  individual  judge  and 
jury  in  his  own  case ;  the  abolition  of  the  pistol 
and  the  bowie  knife,  and  the  substitution  of  the 
court ;  the  abolition  of  the  strike  and  the  boycott, 
and  the  substitution  of  arbitration ;  the  abolition 
of  war,  and  the  substitution  of  international  law, 
and  a  tribunal  to  interpret  and  apply  it. 
v/^^  Christianity,  then,  and  war  are  absolutely  in- 
consistent. Christianity  proposes,  as  the  method 
of  settling  all  contests,  an  appeal  to  reason  :  first, 
in  the  contestants  ;  then,  if  that  fails,  in  an  imj^ar- 
tial  tribunal.  War  prefers  appeal  to  force.  For 
war  is  not  mere  chance  quarreling.  It  is  the 
publicly  recognized  method  of  settling  quarrels 
between  nations.  It  is  provided  for  and  brought 
under  the  regulation  of  international  law.  "  War," 
says  Charles  Sumner,  "  is  a  public  armed  contest 
between  nations,  under  the  sanction  of  interna- 
tional  law,  to  establish  justice  between   them."  ^ 

1  The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,  by  Charles  Sumner.     See  au- 
thorities there  cited  which  abundantly  support  this  definition. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  243 

That  it  is  a  public  armed  contest  between  nations 
will  be  at  once  recognized  by  the  reader.  Every 
such  contest  is  not,  however,  war.  Legitimate 
war  is  carried  on  under  the  sanction  of  interna- 
tional law.  This  law  determines  measurably  what 
is  a  proper  occasion  for  war ;  what  notice  of  war 
should  be  given  before  the  first  offensive  act ;  how 
that  notice  should  be  given ;  who  are  combatants 
and  who  are  non-combatants ;  what  are  the  rights 
of  non-combatants,  and  under  what  rules  and  reg- 
ulations the  war  may  be  prosecuted.  It  is,  for 
example,  no  longer  legitimate  to  make  war  on  a 
neighbor  for  the .  ostensible  purpose  of  robbing 
him  of  his  territory.  It  is  no  longer  legitimate 
to  pillage  and  destroy  the  property  of  inoffen- 
sive inhabitants  who  are  not  contributing  to  the 
enemy's  strength.  It  is  not  legitimate  to  sell 
prisoners  taken  in  war  into  slavery,  nor  to  kill 
them  in  cold  blood.  International  law  determines, 
in  other  words,  the  conditions  under  which  war 
may  be  declared  and  carried  on ;  and  the  avowed 
object  of  this  war  between  nations  is  to  establish 
justice  between  them.  "  Though  war,"  says  Mr. 
Whewell,  cited  by  Mr.  Sumner  in  support  of  his 
definition,  "  is  appealed  to  because  there  is  no 
other  ultimate  tribunal  to  which  states  can  have 
,  recourse,  it  is  appealed  to  for  justice.  The  object 
of  international  law  is  not  to  prevent  but  to  regu- 
late warfare  ;  not  to  contrive  some  other  method 
of  securing  justice  between  nations,  certainly  not 
to    leave    nations   to    suffer   injustice    without    a 


244      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

remedy,  but  to  make  such  regulations  respecting 
war  as  a  means  of  securing  justice  as  will  alleviate 
soQiewhat  its  terrors,  and  redeem  it  somewhat  from 
its  essential  barbarism."  ^ 

War  thus  resembles  in  its  essential  character- 
istics the  now  obsolete  wager  of  battle.  The  dif- 
ference between  the  two  consists  in  this :  war  is  a 
public  armed  contest  between  nations ;  wager  of 
battle  was  a  public  armed  contest  between  indi- 
viduals. But  the  latter  was,  as  the  former  still 
is,  conducted  under  the  sanction  of  law,  and  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  establishing  justice  between 
the  combatants.  The  rules  for  the  regulation  of 
personal  battle  were  definite,  explicit,  and  care- 
fully enforced.  If  an  individual  were  accused 
of  crime,  he  could  demand  battle  with  his  accuser 
as  a  means  of  determining  his  guilt  or  innocence. 
Each  party  was  required  to  swear  to  the  justice 
of  his  cause;  his  defeat  involved  him  under  the 
stigma  of  perjury.  He  might,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, employ  a  champion  to  fight  for  him, 
much  as  the  king  employs  an  army.  The  accused 
could  challenge  not  only  his  accuser  but  the  wit- 
nesses against  him,  and,  in  some  cases,  even  the 
court  itself.  He  must  prove  his  innocence  by  his 
victory ;  in  England  he  was  acquitted  if  he  fought 
successfully  until  the  stars  appeared.  The  whole, 
system  rested  on  the  belief  that  God  was  present 

1  "  The  part  played  by  International  Law  has  been  not  to  pre- 
vent but  to  reg'ulate  wnviara:' —  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  art. 
"  International  Law." 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  245 

with  men  in  battle,  and  would  defend  the  inno- 
cent and  give  victory  to  virtue.  Condemned  by 
St.  Louis  in  France  in  the  thirteenth  century,  it 
gradually  disappeared,  but  was  not  finally  and 
authoritatively  declared  illegal  in  Great  Britain 
until  the  year  1819.  Abraham  Thornton,  accused 
of  murder,  demanded  the  right  to  vindicate  his 
innocence  by  wager  of  battle.  The  court  sus- 
tained his  right  to  do  so.  The  accuser  aban- 
doned the  proceedings,  and  at  the  next  session 
of  Parliament  trial  by  battle  was,  by  legislative 
act,  abolished  forever.^ 

It  is  the  object  of  Christianity  to  abolish  trial 
by  battle  between  nations,  as  it  has  already  abol- 
ished trial  by  battle  between  individuals,  —  not 
merely  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  war,  not  merely 
to  reduce  the  occasions  of  war,  not  merely  to  lessen 
the  preparations  for  war,  but  to  put  an  end  to 
public  war  absolutely,  as  it  has  put  an  end  to 
private  war  absolutely.  Fights  there  still  are 
between  individuals,  but  the  right  to  fight  is  not 
recognized  by  law.  Fights  there  may  still  con- 
tinue to  be  between  nations,  but  the  right  to  fight 
will  not  be  recognized  by  international  law  when 
Christianity  has  wrought  among  the  nations  what 
it  has  wrought  within  the  nations.  Christianity 
has  taken  the  bowie  knife  from  the  belt  and  the 
pistol  from  the  hip  pocket.     The  individual  citizen 

1  See  The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,  cited  above,  and  authori- 
ties there  cited.  See,  also,  Henry  C.  Lea,  Superstition  and  Force, 
Essoy  I. 


246      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

goes  unarmed.  He  submits  his  controversies  to  an 
impartial  tribunal.  He  trusts  for  his  protection 
to  a  disinterested  police.  When  Christianity  has 
achieved  its  mission,  nations  also  will  go  unarmed. 
They  will  also  submit  their  controversies  to  an 
impartial  tribunal,  and  trust  for  their  protection 
to  the  cooperation  of  the  nations  of  Christendom. 
We  shall  have  no  navy,  except  such  as  is  necessary 
to  patrol  the  sea  and  protect  commerce  from  the 
brigands  of  the  ocean.  We  shall  as  little  think  it 
necessary  to  put  fortifications  and  torpedo  boats  at 
our  harbors  as  now  to  put  a  moat  and  the  draw- 
bridge at  the  front  door  of  our  houses.  In  brief, 
Christianity  has  already  substituted  the  appeal  to 
law  for  the  appeal  to  force  in  individual  contro- 
versies. Its  work  will  not  be  consummated  until 
it  has  substituted  law  for  war  in  controversies 
between  nations.  Law  gives  might  to  right ;  war 
gives  might  for  right  ;  law  establishes  justice,  war 
simply  demonstrates  power  ;  law  evokes  the  judg- 
ment, war  organizes  the  passions ;  law  is  civiliza- 
tion, war  is  barbarism. 

It  does  not  need  much  space  to  demonstrate  the 
evils  of  war  as  a  method  of  settling  controversies 
between  nations.     Its  pecuniary  cost  is  enormous.^ 

1  The  Napoleonic  wars  added  £600,000,000  to  the  debt  of 
Great  Britain,  and  exhausted  France  of  all  her  soldiers.  T.  E.  C. 
Leslie,  Essays  in  Folit.  and  Moral  Phil.,  p.  V>. 

"  The  United  States  presents  a  contrast  with  Europe  that  is 
most  striking  and  pregnant  with  meaning.  The  extent  of  territory 
is  about  the  same  ;  the  self-governing  states  in  the  United  States 
are  thirty-eight,  against  only  seventeen  in  Europe  ;  the  population 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  247 

It  is  estimated  that,  of  the  taxes  paid  by  the  bur- 
dened people  of  Europe,  one  third  is  devoted  to 
the  payment  of  interest  on  war  debts,  and  one 
third  to  the  maintenance  of  military  equipments. 
Let  the  reader  imagine  what  would  be  the  con- 
dition of  private  industry  if  every  man  had  to 
devote  one  third  of  his  income  to  pay  for  arming 
his  retainers  to  protect  his  house  and  his  property, 
and  another  third  to  pay  interest  on  debts  incurred 
in  previous  protection.  Add  to  this  cost  that 
which  is  involved  in  withdrawing  from  the  pro- 
ductive power  of  the  nation  the  whole  force  of  its 
standing  army,  even  in  time  of  peace,  and  devot- 

is  fifty  millions,  rapidly  increasing-,  against  300,000,000  in  Europe, 
very  slowly  increasing-.  Compare  these  figures  with  27,000  under 
arms  in  the  United  States,  against  3,500,000  in  Europe,  and  a  war 
expenditure  of  £10,000,000  in  the  former  against  £156,000,000 
in  the  latter."     Mongredieu,  Wealth  Creation,  p.  100. 

Mongredieu,  Wealth  Creation,  p.  106,  estimates  the  costs  of 
European  armaments  in  time  of  peace  as  follows,  above  the 
amounts  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  police  purposes  in  a 
"  United  States  "  of  Europe  on  the  basis  of  what  is  now  supposed 
to  be  necessary  in  the  United  States  of  America  :  — 

£132,000,000  now  spent  on  war  preparations  in  time  of  peace. 
£150,000,000  which  3,000,000  of  men  would  earn  who  now  earn 

nothing. 
£10,000,000  which  500,000  horses  would  earn  which  now  earn 

nothing. 

£292,000,000  total    annual  cost   of  war  preparations  useless  if 
Europe  were  on  a  peace  basis. 

A.  J.  Palm,  in  The  Death  Penalty,  p.  207,  estimates  the  cost  of 
the  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  interest  and  pen- 
sions, at  $3,418,000,000,  and  the  market  value  of  the  slaves  eman- 
cipated at  $1,200,000,  —  a  costly  method  of  emancipation. 


248      CHRfSTlAXITY    AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

iiig  that  force  to  destruction  in  time  of  war,  and 
the  pecuniary  cost  of  this  method  of  securing  jus- 
tice between  nations  transcends  all  estimate.  But 
this  is  the  least  cost.  To  this  must  be  added  the 
loss  of  human  life.  The  development  of  the 
science  of  destruction  has  multiplied  this  loss 
until  to-day,  so  awful  are  the  possibilities  of 
battle,  so  wholesale  is  the  murder  perpetrated, 
that  the  most  military  nations  are  beginning  to 
react  against  the  gigantic  crime.  "  When  we 
recall,"  says  Mr.  James  M.  Beck,^  ''  that,  in  one 
of  the  battles  around  Metz,  the  use  of  the  mitrail- 
leuse struck  down  six  thousand  Germans  in  ten 
minutes,  and  that  at  Plevna,  in  1877,  Skobeleff 
lost  in  a  short  rush  of  a  few  hundred  yards  three 
thousand  men,  and  remember  that  the  mitrailleuse 
and  needle-gun  have  been  since  quintupled  in 
their  capacity  for  destruction,  the  prospect  is  one 
at  which  the  mind  stands  aghast  and  the  heart  sick- 
ens." This  loss  of  human  life  carries  with  it  the 
desolated  homes,  the  fears,  the  sorrows,  the  hope 
deferred  making  the  heart  sick,  the  accumulated 
anguish  in  innumerable  hearts,  which  the  greatest 
novelists  have  endeavored  in  vain  adequately  to 
depict.^ 

Greater  even  than  this  is  the  loss  to  moral 
character.      War  is  the  tiger  in  man  let  loose.     It 

1  J.  M.  Beck,  The  Distress  of  Nations  :  an  address  delivered 
on  Thanksg-iving-  Day,  1894. 

2  See,  for  example.  The  Downfall,  by  Zola  ;  War  and  Peace,  by 
Tolstoi ;  Ground  Arms,  by  tlie  Baroness  von  Suttner  ;  and  Fire 
and  Sward,  and  The  Dehuje,  by  Sienkiewicsz. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  249 

is  the  reversion  to  the  brute  nature,  the  employ- 
ment of  brutal  methods.  "War,"  says  Douglas 
Jerrold,  "  is  murder  in  uniform."  "  War,"  saj^s 
Napoleon  the  Great,  "  is  the  trade  of  barbarians." 
"  You  think  that  war  is  all  glory,"  said  Sherman  ; 
*'  I  tell  you  it  is  all  hell."  "  There  is  nothing  more 
horrible  than  victory,"  said  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, "  except  defeat."  Nor  are  its  evils  to  charac- 
ter buried  with  its  corpses  on  the  battle-field.  As 
they  leave  ofttimes  pestilence  in  the  air,  so  war 
itself  leaves  moral  pestilence  in  the  nation.  Even 
the  most  just  and  righteous  wars  are  followed  by 
periods  of  demoralization  and  corruption,  against 
which  the  conscience  of  the  nation  struggles  seem- 
ingly in  vain.  In  America  such  political  corrup- 
tion followed  the  Revolutionary  War  ;  in  France, 
the  Napoleonic  wars ;  in  Germany,  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  ;  and,  in  our  own  time  and  our  own 
country,  the  Civil  War.  The  pernicious  principle 
that  justice  between  nations  can  be  settled  by 
armed  conflicts,  under  regulations  prescribed  by 
international  law,  necessitates  the  pernicious  prac- 
tice of  preparing  for  war  in  time  of  peace.  This 
means  a  standing  array  and  a  considerable  navy ; 
and  these  involve  three  perils  to  the  nation  which 
possesses  them.  Their  mere  possession  incites  in 
the  nation  an  ambition  to  use  them.  The  army 
wearies  of  its  inactivity ;  enforced  idleness  be- 
comes monotonous  ;  the  private  soldier  desires  war 
because  his  pay  is  increased,  the  officer  because  he 
has  a  better  chance  of  promotion,  the  contractor 


250      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

because  to  him  war  means  increased  business,  even 
the  farmer  because  he  hopes  for  an  immediate  sale 
of  his  wheat  and  corn,  and  does  not  make  account 
of  the  counterbalancing  losses  of  the  future.  The 
nation,  thus  inciting  itself  to  war  by  its  very  prepa- 
ration therefor,  incites  its  neighbor  also.  In  the 
West,  the  unarmed  cowboy  is  the  safest,  because, 
if  a  controversy  arises  between  cowboys  who  are 
armed,  each  one  endeavors  to  shoot  first  and  so 
anticipate  the  shot  of  his  neighbor.  The  arma- 
ment of  one  nation  incites  its  neighbor  to  arm 
also  ;  and  each  increase  of  military  equipment 
incites  the  suspicions  and  stirs  the  latent  combat- 
iveness  across  the  border.  Thus  the  armed  nation 
by  its  very  armament  provokes  to  war,  and  the 
unarmed  nation  by  its  pacific  disposition  secures 
its  own  peace.  France,  Russia,  Germany,  Austria, 
and  Italy,  living  in  perpetual  encampment,  live 
also  in  perpetual  apprehension  of  war :  but  Swit- 
zerland, Holland,  Belgium,  Norway,  and  Sweden, 
practically  unarmed,  are  free  alike  from  the  bur- 
dens of  war  and  its  apprehension s.^  Greater  than 
these  perils  is  that  to  liberty  by  the  very  existence 
of  a  standing  army.  History  records  not  a  single 
instance  of  a  nation  armed  which  has  remained  a 
nation  free.  The  army  is  necessarily  autocratic, 
and  autocracy  and  democracy  cannot  live  side  by 
side  in  the  same  country  and  under  the  same  flag. 
The  army,  organized  to  be  the  servant  of  the 
nation,   speedily  becomes  the  servant  of  its  com- 

1  J.  M.  Beck,  The  Distress  of  Nations,  p.  10. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTIiOVERS/ES.  251 

mander-in-chief.  Even  if  the  form  of  liberty  re- 
mains, its  reality  disappears ;  but  even  the  form 
does  not  long  remain.  The  president  becomes 
first  consul,  the  first  consul  emperor.  Even  Puri- 
tan England  ceased  to  be  a  free  commonwealth  as 
Ions:  as  Cromwell  remained  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Puritan  army.  The  dangers  to  America  from 
a  great  navy  and  a  considerable  army  would  be  far 
greater  than  the  dangers  from  all  foreign  nations. 
It  would  be  safer  for  us  to  be  without  a  fortifica- 
tion from  the  Penobscot  to  the  Mississippi,  and 
without  any  other  armed  force  than  such  militia 
as  might  be  called  into  requisition  when  occasion 
should  arise,  than  to  follow  the  example  of  Euro- 
pean nations,  and,  under  guise  of  protecting  our- 
selves from  imaginary  enemies,  create  an  army  and 
navy  which  would  be  liable  to  become,  in  the 
hands  of  an  unprincipled  leader,  far  more  danger- 
ous than  any  foreign  foe. 

These  perils  might  well  make  us  hesitate  to  ac- 
cept war  as  a  method  of  establishing  justice  be- 
tween nations  even  were  it  ever  so  efficacious.  But 
it  is  not  efficacious.  It  does  not  establish  justice. 
We  no  longer  believe  that  God  is  preeminently  the 
God  of  battles,  and  that  in  every  controversy  He 
gives  protection  to  feeble  innocence  against  armed 
oppression,  and  victory  to  right  against  might. 
This  superstitious  faith  which  underlay  wager  of 
battle  is  equally  superstitious  as  the  basis  of  public 
war.  In  fact  the  superstition  is  no  longer  enter- 
tained, and  the  appeal  in  war  is  not  to  the  God  of 


'252      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    FROBLEMS. 

battles  but  to  the  force  of  arms.  Might  does  not 
make  right ;  and  the  history  of  Europe  is  writ 
with  many  a  page  on  which  is  recounted  injustice 
triumphing  in  wager  of  public  battle.  Nor  does 
war  really  determine  the  question  submitted  to  its 
arbitrament.  There  is  one  question,  and  only  one, 
which  war  settles,  —  the  question  of  authority. 
Force  must  necessarily  be  employed  in  the  last 
analysis  when  legitimate  authority  is  defied  by 
force.  When  the  States  of  a  great  Union  have 
agreed  to  submit  all  their  questions  to  the  decision 
of  the  people,  and  a  portion  of  those  States  refuse 
to  submit  to  this  final  tribunal,  then  either  that 
tribunal  must  abnegate  its  authority  and  the  na- 
tion be  dissolved,  or  that  authority  must  be  en- 
forced at  the  cannon's  mouth.  An  army  thus 
enforcing  the  authority  of  law  is  simply  performing 
police  duty  upon  a  great  scale.  The  use  of  force 
is  legitimate  in  two  cases,  and  only  two,  —  when 
there  is  no  law  to  which  appeal  can  be  made,  and 
when  the  law,  though  it  exists,  is  defied.  But  no 
other  question  than  the  authority  of  law  is  ever 
settled  by  appeal  to  arms.  Waterloo  was  thought 
to  determine  for  all  time  that  France  should  be  a 
monarchy,  but  France  is  a  republic.  Sebastopol 
was  thouo-ht  to  determine  for  all  time  that  Russia 
should  have  no  port  upon  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
but  Russia  was  never  so  near  an  open  port  on  that 
sea  as  she  is  to-day. 

There  are  in  our  time  two  arguments  suggested 
in  favor  of  the  perpetuation  of  war.      It  is  said 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  253 

that  war  is  glorious,  and  that  a  nation  without  war 
is  without  heroism.  It  is  true  that  war  affords  op- 
portunities for  heroism,  and  thus  opportunity  for 
deeds  truly  glorious.  It  is  true  that  something 
resplendent  would  be  lacking  in  American  history 
if  there  were  no  Bunker  Hill,  no  Valley  Forge,  no 
Paul  Jones  or  General  Jackson,  no  Antietam  or 
Gettysburg.  Shall  we,  then,  maintain  a  restless, 
burdensome,  demoralizing,  and  inefficient  method 
of  securing  justice,  because  under  such  a  method 
men  exhibit  heroic  qualities  ?  Shall  we  retain  bur- 
dens of  which  we  might  be  relieved,  because  men 
proved  themselves  patient  in  bearing  them  ?  Shall 
we  retain  sin  because  if  there  were  no  sin  there 
could  be  no  redeeming  love  ?  Pestilence  in  a  city 
brings  glory  with  it,  the  glory  of  nurse  and  physi- 
cian sacrificing  themselves  in  self-denying  service 
to  save  the  lives  of  others.  Shall  we  introduce 
pestilence  into  our  cities  ?  A  great  conflagration 
gives  opportunity  for  glory  in  the  firemen  who  fight 
the  flames  and  rescue  the  imperiled.  Shall  we 
touch  the  torch  to  our  homes,  and  wrap  the  city  in 
a  great  conflagration,  for  the  sake  of  giving  oppor- 
tunity for  such  glorious  heroism  ?  But  neither  pes- 
tilence nor  conflagration  brings  with  it  a  tithe  of 
the  perils,  the  suffering,  the  moral  distress,  which 
war  inevitably  entails. 

The  other  argument  for  war  is  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  promote  patriotism.  It  is  true  that  pa- 
triotism is  often  deepened  by  war,  but  it  is  not 
true  that  patriotism  depends  upon  war.     A  strange 


254      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

inversion  of  the  natural  order  is  this  doctrine 
which  teaches  us,  not  that  we  fight  for  our  country 
because  we  love  it,  but  that  we  love  it  only  because 
we  fight  for  it.  A  strange  reversal  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  is  this  doctrine  which  says  to  us,  It 
hath  been  said  to  them  of  olden  time,  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  and  hate  thine  enemy,  but  I  say 
unto  you  that  you  cannot  love  your  neighbor  unless 
you  hate  your  enemy.  A  strange  contradiction  of 
the  very  axiom  of  Christianity  is  this  doctrine  that 
love  can  be  nourished  only  at  the  breast  of  hate. 

Christianity  has  done  much  to  mitigate  the  hor- 
rors of  war,  and  something  to  lessen  the  incentives 
to  it.  It  has  itself  created  some  of  those  regula- 
tions of  international  law  to  which  I  have  briefly 
adverted.  It  has  forbidden  the  torturing  and  the 
killing  of  captives  ;  it  has  discouraged  and  finally 
abolished  the  practice  of  reducing  them  to  slavery. 
It  has  made  war,  when  undertaken  for  the  avowed 
purjiose  of  plunder,  illegal,  and  in  Christendom 
well-nigh  impossible.  It  has  created  a  spirit  of 
humanity  and  justice  which  has  provided  on  the 
one  hand  some  jirotection  for  non-combatants,  on 
the  other  some  alleviation  for  the  wounded  and  the 
captive  ;  and  it  has  inspired  a  spirit  of  chivalry 
which,  surviving  the  Crusades,  has  given  to  civil- 
ized warfare  a  character  in  important  respects  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  ancient  paganism.^    And  it  has 

1  "The  chang-es  Christianity  effected  in  the  rights  of  war 
were  very  important,  and  they  may,  I  think,  he  comprised  under 
three  heads.      In  the  fiist  place,  it   suppressed  tlie  gladiatorial 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  255 

taught  continuously,  tlirougli  its  great  prophets, 
though  certainly  not  always  consistently  by  the 
voice  of  all  its  representatives,  that  war  is  righteous 
only  when  it  is  inevitable,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  and  that  Christ's  disciples  should 
constantly  seek  to  hasten  the  time  prophesied  in 
Isaiah  when  "men  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
ploughshares  and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks  ; 
when  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more."  ^ 

The  movement  gathering  force  in  England  and 
in  the  United  States  for  the  settlement  of  inter- 
national controversies  by  Christ's  method  of  rea- 
son, in  lieu  of  the  pagan  method  of  brute  force, 
has  eighteen  centuries  of  progress  behind  it. 
Though  the  world    moves   slowly,  still   it  moves. 

shows,  and  thereby  saved  thousands  of  captives  from  a  bloody 
death.  In  the  next  place,  it  steadily  discouraged  the  practice  of 
enslaving'  prisoners,  ransomed  immense  multitudes  with  chari- 
table contributions,  and  by  slow  and  insensible  g'radations  pro- 
ceeded on  its  path  of  mercy  till  it  became  a  recog-nized  principle 
of  international  law  that  no  Christian  prisoners  should  be  re- 
duced to  slavery.  In  the  third  place,  it  had  a  more  indirect  but 
very  powerful  influence  by  the  creation  of  a  new  warlike  ideal. 
The  ideal  knig-ht  of  the  Crusades  and  of  chivalry,  uniting-  all  the 
force  and  fire  of  the  ancient  warrior  with  all  the  tenderness  and 
humility  of  the  Christian  saint,  sprang-  from  the  conjunction  of 
the  two  streams  of  religious  and  of  military  feeling- ;  and,  al- 
though this  ideal,  like  all  others,  was  a  creation  of  the  imagina- 
tion, although  it  was  rarely  or  never  perfectly  realized  in  life, 
yet  it  remained  the  type  and  model  of  warlike  excellence,  to  which 
many  generations  aspired ;  and  its  softening  influence  may  even 
now  be  largely  traced  in  the  character  of  the  modern  gentleman." 
W.  E,  H.  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  vol.  ii.  p.  274. 
1  Isaiah  ii.  4. 


256      CHRltiTJAXlTY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

The  impatient  reader  must  remember  that  once 
revenge  was  both  a  sacred  right  and  a  sacred  duty. 
He  who  had  been  wronged  was  regarded  under  an 
obligation  to  revenge  the  wrong.  Such  vengeance 
was  wreaked  not  only  on  the  offender  personally, 
but  on  the  family  to  which  he  belonged.  The  first 
restraint  in  history  upon  this  perpetnal  warfare 
was  that  imposed  in  the  Mosaic  law,  which,  in 
case  of  murder,  limited  the  right  of  vengeance  to 
the  nearest  relatives  of  the  murdered  man.  ^  Out 
of  the  right  of  personal  vengeance  grew  what  is 
known  in  history  as  "private  war."  From  the 
ninth  to  the  fifteenth  century  Europe  was  deso- 
lated with  this  species  of  w^ar,  waged  between 
nobles  and  private  citizens,  rival  cities  and  hostile 
communities,  often  arising  from  the  most  insignifi- 
cant causes.  A  merchant  imprisoned  for  debt 
demanded  indemnity,  and  made  war  upon  the  city 
in  which  he  had  been  imprisoned ;  a  nobleman, 
counting  himself  insulted  because  a  lady  had 
broken  her  promise  to  dance  with  his  cousin, 
made  war  upon  the  city  in  which  she  resided.  In 
France  the  relatives  of  the  one  making  war  could 
be  called  on  to  render  him  assistance  up  to  the 
seventh  degree.  The  suffering  and  desolation  re- 
sulting from  this  private  war  surpass  the  powers 
of  description.  One  wari-ioi',  the  Margrave  of 
Brandenburg,  boasted  that  he  had  burned  one 
hundred  and  seventy  villages. 

At  length  the  Church  set  itself  against  such  war. 

1  Numbers  xxxv.  9-34  ;   Deut.  xix.  1-13  ;  Joshua  xx.  1-6. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTKOV ERISI ES.  257 

Pilgrims  preached  through  Europe  the  duty  of 
peace.  Missionaries  from  country  to  country  acted 
as  peacemakers.  Associations  formed  to  collect  a 
fund  to  compensate  sufferers  from  violence.  Peace 
was  imposed  as  a  sacred  duty  during  Lent,  and 
then  at  other  specified  times ;  finally,  four  days  in 
the  week  were  declared  days  of  holy  truce.  Finally, 
courts  of  arbitration  were  organized  by  the  barons 
and  the  bishops,  founded  on  the  teachings  of  Christ 
and  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  ^ 

This  right  of  personal  vengeance,  this  obliga- 
tion of  enforcing  it,  continued  to  be  recognized 
far  down  into  the  Middle  Ages.  The  wager  of 
battle  which  I  have  already  described  grew  out 
of  an  endeavor  by  a  humane  and  partially  Chris- 
tian spirit  to  surround  this  right  and  duty  with 
certain  legal  restrictions  and  safeguards.  The 
time  came  when  open  attack  was  not  permitted 
within  the  immediate  demesne  of  the  king,  and 
the  peace  which  there  prevailed  was  known  as  the 
"  king's  peace."  Little  by  little  this  king's  peace 
extended  over  the  highways,  and  finally  over  the 
whole  country,  and  every  act  of  personal  violence 
was  deemed  a  wrong,  because  it  was  a  violation  of 
the  king's  peace  and  an  insult  to  him. 

Thus  Christianity,  first  ameliorating  and  re- 
straining and  finally  abolishing  private  contro- 
versy, and  substituting  therefor  courts  of  law, 
then  ameliorating  and  abolishing  private  war,  and 
substituting  therefor  laws  of  war  recognized  by  all 
1  Matt,  xviii.  15-17 ;  1  Cor.  vi.  4-7. 


258      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

civilized  nations,  prepared  the  way  for  what  is 
known  as  the  "  Great  Design  "  of  Henry  of  Na- 
varre. This  was  nothing  less  than  the  establish- 
ment of  a  United  States  of  Europe,  composed  of 
all  its  great  powers  excepting  Russia,  who  were  to 
combine  in  maintaining  one  standing  army  to 
keep  peace  between  the  states  and  to  repel  in- 
vasions of  barbarians.  The  tragic  death  of  Henry 
the  Fourth  by  the  assassin's  knife,  in  1610,  pre- 
vented the  consummation  of  the  Great  Design, 
though  we  may  well  doubt  whether  Christian  in- 
fluences had  at  that  time  sufficiently  dominated 
the  mind  and  heart  of  Europe  to  make  this  design 
practicable,  nor  was  it  wholly  free  from  a  ruthless 
character  intermingled  with  its  Christian  purpose.^ 
A  little  less  than  a  century  later,  William  Penn 
reproduced  in  a  different  form  a  similar  scheme 
for  the  settlement  of  international  difficulties  by  a 
great  court  of  arbitration.  But  not  until  a  century 
after  that  was  Christ's  method  of  settling  contro- 
versies introduced  practically  and  on  a  large  scale 
as  a  means  of  securing  justice  between  nations. 
At  the  close  of  the  last  century,  by  treaty  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  negotiated 
by  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  John 
Jay,  it  was  declared  that  certain  disputes  between 
the  United   States   and   Great   Britain   should   be 

1  For  account  of  the  Great  Design,  see  Memoirs  of  the  Duke  de 
Sully ^  book  iii.  ;  The  Huguenots  and  Henry  of  Navarre,  hj  Professor 
Baird,  vol.  ii.  p.  41)1  ;  and  "  The  United  States  of  Europe,"  by 
Edward  Everett  Hale,  in  The  Old  and  New  for  March,  1871. 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  259 

ndjusted  by  arbitration.  Inspired  by  this  prece- 
dent, and  "  under  the  beneficent  working  of  this 
jn'inciple/  nearly  one  international  case  a  year 
has  been  settled  during  the  past  eighty  years."  ^ 
Only  four  or  five  are  known  to  most  people,  for 
one  war  makes  more  noise  than  a  hundred  arbi- 
trations, and  costs  more  than  a  thousand  times  as 
much.^  In  accordance  with  its  own  spirit,  in  peace 
and  quietness,  international  arbitration  has  been 
displacing  war. 

Yet,  in  this  movement  for  the  substitution  of 
reason  in  the  place  of  force  for  the  determining 
of  justice  between  nations,  the  progress  has  always 
been  pathetically  slow.  There  is  something  at 
once  painful  and  humorous  in  the  dread  which 
mankind  has  shown  of  a  change  so  rational  and 
so  beneficent.  An  illustration  of  this  spirit  al- 
most worthy  of  a  comic  opera  is  afforded  by  our 
treaty  with  Mexico  of  1848.  Art.  XXI.,  provid- 
ing: for  arbitration  between  the  United  States  and 

1  Chauncey  M.  Depew,  address  before  the  New  York  State 
Bar  Association,  January  21,  1896. 

2  We  have  arbitrated  about  forty  cases,  she  (Great  Britain) 
not  less  than  thirty :  the  United  States  has  settled  difficulties  in 
this  way  with  sixteen  nations,  thirteen  of  which  are  weak  powers ; 
Great  Britain  with  eleven,  six  of  which  are  weak  powers.  The 
two  countries  have  settled  thirteen  disputes  between  themselves,  — 
thirteen  of  the  most  difficult,  delicate,  and  far-reaching  in  conse- 
quences of  all  the  cases  ever  adjusted  by  arbitration. — "The 
United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  International  Arbitration,"  by 
Benjamin  F.  Trueblood,  LL.  D.,  New  England  Magazine,  March, 
1896. 

^  Benjamin  F.  Trueblood,  LL.  D.,  Report  of  the  Lake  Mohonk 
Conference,  1895,  p.  6. 


260      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

Mexico,  is  such  a  curious  j^iece  of  literature  that 
it  deserves  insertion  in  full :  — 

"If,  unhappily,  any  disagreement  shall  hereafter 
arise  between  the  governments  of  the  two  republics, 
whether  with  respect  to  the  interi3retation  of  any  stipu- 
lation in  this  treaty,  or  with  respect  to  any  other  par- 
ticular concerning  the  political  or  commercial  relations 
of  the  two  nations,  the  said  governments,  in  the  names 
of  those  two  nations,  do  promise  to  each  other  that  they 
will  endeavor,  in  the  most  sincere  and  earnest  manner, 
to  settle  the  differences  so  arising,  and  to  preserve  the 
state  of  jjeace  and  friendship  in  which  the  two  nations 
are  now  placing  themselves,  using  for  this  end  mutual 
representations  and  pacific  negotiations.  And  if  by 
these  means  they  should  not  be  enabled  to  come  to  an 
agreement,  a  resort  shall  not  on  this  account  be  had  to 
reprisals,  aggression,  or  hostility  of  any  kind  by  the  one 
republic  against  the  other,  until  the  government  of  that 
which  deems  itself  aggrieved  shall  have  maturely  con- 
sidered, in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  good  neighborship, 
whether  it  would  not  be  better  that  such  difference 
should  be  settled  by  the  arbitration  of  commissioners 
appointed  on  each  side,  or  by  that  of  a  friendly  nation. 
And,  should  such  course  be  j^roposed  by  either  party,  it 
shall  be  acceded  to  by  the  other,  unless  deemed  by  the 
other  incompatible  with  the  nature  of  the  difference  or 
the  circumstances  of  the  case."  ^ 

The  court  has  taken  the  place  of  the  pistol  and 
the  bowie  knife  for  the  settlement  of  individual 
controversies ;  international  law,  regulating-  war, 
has   taken  the   place  of   private    and   unregulated 

1   Treaties  of  the  United  States,  p.  690. 
\ 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  2G1 

war  in  Europe ;  arbitration  has  taken  the  place 
of  even  regulated  war  in  the  adjustment  of  con- 
troversies between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
St  ates  ;  and  law,  interpreted  and  applied  by  a 
permanent  tribunal,  has  been  established  on  this 
continent,  —  the  fitting  though  long-delayed  con- 
summation of  this  slow  progress  out  of  barbarism. 
The  organization  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  is  recognized  by  all  political  writers 
as  the  greatest  contribution  which  the  founders  of 
the  American  Constitution  have  made  to  national 
life.  This  nation  is  composed  of  forty-four  States, 
each  independent,  and  in  its  own  legitimate  domain 
sovereign.  Questions  have  again  and  again  arisen 
between  these  sovereign  States  which  in  olden  times 
would  have  precipitated  war  ;  under  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  they  are  submitted  to 
the  arbitrament  of  a  permanent  tribunal,  and  the 
decision  of  that  tribunal  no  State  thinks  of  ques- 
tioning. A  splendid  illustration  of  the  value  of 
such  a  method  of  the  settlement  of  a  great  contro- 
versy has  been  afforded  by  recent  history.  An 
income  tax  was  passed.  Half  the  nation  thought 
it  unjust  and  unconstitutional ;  the  other  half 
thought  it  entirely  constitutional,  and  most  just 
and  essential.  Pecuniary  interests  amounting  to 
millions  of  dollars  were  at  stake.  Party,  class,  and 
sectional  passions  were  inflamed.  Great  nations 
have  often  gone  to  war  with  one  another,  civil 
war  has  often  broken  out  within  a  single  nation, 
for  causes    far    less   than    that   furnished    by  the 


262     CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL  PROBLEMS. 

income-tax  law.  The  question  was  submitted  to 
the  Supreme  Court.  It  was  settled  in  the  first 
place,  not  by  the  decision,  but  by  the  indecision, 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  Because  a  majority  of 
the  court  could  not  be  found  to  declare  this  act 
unconstitutional,  the  great  body  of  the  citizens, 
with  a  few  insignificant  and  dishonorable  excep- 
tions, prepared  to  pay  the  tax.  The  question  was 
then  re-submitted  to  the  court ;  one  of  the  judges 
changed  his  mind,  and  concluded  that  the  act  was 
unconstitutional,  and  all  the  citizens  submitted  to 
his  judgment,  and  the  country  went  on  in  peace 
without  the  tax,  despite  an  inadequate  revenue, 
and  a  treasury  which  would  be  bankrupt  but  for 
repeated  loans.  The  United  States  of  America 
is  itself  a  great  Peace  Society,  and  its  prosperity 
is  a  magnificent  witness  to  the  wisdom  of  Christ's 
counsel.  We  are  a  prosperous  people,  partly  be- 
cause we  have  untold  and  before-undiscovered 
wealth,  but  for  the  most  part  because  the  energy 
which  Europe  puts  into  military  armaments  we 
put  into  the  plow,  the  spade,  and  the  harrow.  The 
forces  which  on  the  one  continent  are  directed 
to  destruction,  on  the  other  are  directed  to  con- 
struction. It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the 
reason  for  the  difference  in  public  welfare  which 
the  two  policies  have  produced.  The  American 
who  attempts  to  beat  the  plowshare  into  a  sword, 
and  the  pruning-hook  into  a  spear,  is  the  enemy  of 
his  country.  He  sets  himself  against  its  splendid 
history  in  the  past,  against  its  magnificent  pros- 
perity in  the  future. 


INTERKATJOXAL    CONTROVERSIES.  263 

This  history  of  civilization  indicates  with  suffi- 
cient clearness  the  next  step  to  be  taken :  it  is 
the  establishment  of  a  permanent  tribunal  for 
the  settlement  of  all  international  controversies 
between  Christian  nations.^  This  is  not  interna- 
tional arbitration ;  it  differs  therefrom  in  impor- 
tant respects.  A  court  of  arbitration  is  not  organ- 
ized until  the  dispute  arises  and  passions  are 
inflamed.  Ordinarily  each  party  selects  one  arbi- 
trator, and  those  thus  selected  choose  a  third ;  thus 
the  court  itself  is  not  non-partisan,  but  bi-partisan, 
with  an  arbitrator  to  judge  between  the  factions. 
Submission  after  the  controversy  has  arisen  is 
always  more  difficult  than  the  anticipation  of  con- 
troversy, and  the  prevention  of  it  by  an  agree- 
ment to  submit  before  the  controversy  arises. 
The  court  of  arbitration  decides  nothing  but  the 
specific  questions  submitted  to  it,  and  is  neither 
governed  by  precedents  in  the  past,  nor  makes 
precedents  to  prevent  contentions  in  the  future. 
In  these  respects  the  permanent  tribunal  differs 
from  the  court  of  arbitration.  It  is  an  impartial 
tribunal.  It  is  relatively  unaffected  by  the  pas- 
sions of  the  hour.  It  not  only  settles  the  special 
questions  submitted  to  it,  but  it  declares  authori- 
tatively principles  which  prevent  future  questions 
from   arising.     And  controversies,   when  they  do 

1  See  address  of  Edward  Everett  Hale,  D.  D.,  in  the  Report  of 
the  First  Annual  Lake  Mohonk  Conference  on  International  Arbi- 
tration for  1895,  p.  21 ;  and  the  entire  report  of  the  Second  Annual 
Conference,  and  especially  its  platform  ;  this  report  is  g-oing-  to 
press  at  the  same  time  with  this  volume. 


264      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

arise,  do  not  become  passionate  if  both  the  con- 
testants know  beforehand  that  an  honorable  and 
just  method  of  arbitrament  has  been  provided. 

There  are  no  insuperable  legal  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  the  establishment  of  such  a  permanent 
Supreme  Court  of  Christendom.  Such  constitu- 
tional lawyers  as  Judge  David  J.  Brewer,  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  Professor  T.  M.  Cooley,  of  Ann 
Arbor,  Professor  J.  B.  Thayer,  of  the  Harvard 
Law  School,  and  the  late  Professor  Austin  Abbott, 
Dean  of  the  New  York  University  Law  School, 
concur  in  the  affirmation  that  there  is  no  consti- 
tutional difficulty  in  America.  Lawyers  equally 
eminent  in  Great  Britain  are  equally  explicit  in 
the  statement  that  no  insuperable  obstacle  is  pre- 
sented by  the  traditions  of  that  country.  The 
foundations  are  already  laid  in  past  history  for 
such  a  tribunal  for  the  settlement  of  questions 
between  Anglo-Saxon  communities.  Their  legal 
1 1  aditions  and  their  political  sjjirit  are,  if  not  iden- 
tical, at  all  events  of  kin.  Says  Sir  Frederick 
Pollock :  "  The  law  of  our  English-speaking  com- 
monwealth, on  which  the  sun  never  sets,  is  one  law 
in  many  varieties,  not  many  laws  which  happen  to 
resemble  one  another  in  several  particulars."  The 
movement  in  favor  of  such  a  tribunal  has  already 
acquired  a  force  greater  than,  at  this  writing,  is 
generally  recognized  by  the  public  press.  In  the 
United  States,  popular  committees  organized  al- 
most simultaneously,  and  without  previous  counsel, 
in  the  winter  of  1896,  in  the  cities  of  New  York, 


INTERNATIONAL    CONTROVERSIES.  265 

Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Chicago,  led 
to  one  of  the  most  notable  conventions  ever  held  in 
the  United  States.  Convened  that  year  in  April, 
at  Washington,  it  was  attended  by  eminent  mer- 
chants, lawyers,  jurists,  statesmen,  and  ministers, 
who  'united  in  urging  upon  the  government  the 
desirability  and  the  practicability  of  such  a  tribu- 
nal. In  England,  a  similar  movement  has  received 
the  endorsement  of  ^ler  most  eminent  clergy  and 
publicists,  and  the  semi-official  approval  of  her 
Prime  Minister.  In  France,  by  a  nearly  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  Legislative  Assembly,  proposals 
have  been  submitted  to  this  country  for  a  perma- 
nent treaty  of  arbitration  between  the  two  coun- 
tries. The  Inter-parliamentary  Union  of  Europe, 
in  which  fourteen  states  were  represented  by  mem- 
bers of  their  respective  j^arliaments,  have  formu- 
lated a  definite  plan  for  the  formation  of  such  a 
tribunal  by  the  judicial  representatives  from  each 
nation  for  the  purpose.  These  events,  all  occur- 
ring during  the  twelve  months  ending  July  4,  1896, 
warrant  the  belief  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant 
when  a  Supreme  Court  of  Christendom  will  be 
established,  and  nations  will  "learn  war  no  more." 
Is  the  question  asked.  How  shall  the  decisions 
of  such  a  court  be  enforced  ?  It  is  easily  answered 
by  another,  —  How  have  the  decisions  of  courts  of 
international  arbitration  been  enforced?  Not  by 
authority  from  above,  but  by  authority  from  be- 
low. As  Daniel  Webster  eloquently  pointed  out 
lialf  a  century  ago,  there  is  a  power  in  pul^lie  opin- 


266      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

1010.}  Neither  the  United  States  nor  Great  Britain 
would  be  sustained  by  its  own  people  in  refusal  to 
abide  by  the  decision  of  an  impartial  tribunal  in 
which  an  issue  between  the  two  countries  had  once 
been  submitted  by  mutual  agreement.  As  Profes- 
sor John  B.  Clark  clearly  pointed  out  in  a  very 
able  address  at  the  Second  Annual  Labor  Mohonk 
Conference,  already  referred  to,  and  as  Mr.  Austin 
Abbott  had  pointed  out  at  the  previous  Confer- 
ence, industrial  interests  are  binding  the  nations 
together.  The  suppressed  hostility  of  labor  to 
capital  tends  in  itself  to  unite  both  the  capital- 
ists and  the  laborers  of  different  nationalities  in 
two  great  international  brotherhoods.  Hostile  to 
each  other,  they  are  agreed  in  their  common  hostil- 
ity to  war,  —  the  one,  because  it  destroys  capital ; 
the  other,  because  it  paralyzes  industry.  If  any 
other  method  of  protecting  national  honor  and 
national  rights  should  be  provided,  industrial  in- 
terests would  unite  with  the  moral  sense  of  the 
people  to  compel  its  acceptance  by  submitting  to 
the  judicial  tribunal  which  was  organized  such  con- 
troversies as  might  arise,  and  acquiescing  in  the  de- 
cree of  the  tribunal  when  rendered. 

Two  causes  provoke  war,  —  one,  human  passion, 
too  hot  and  hasty  to  pause  for  consideration ;  law 
restrains  such  passion,  and  calls  on  the  reason  to 
act ;   the  other,  the  absence  of  any  other  remedy  for 

^  Speech  on  the  Revolution  in  Greece,  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, January  19,  1824,  Great  Speeches  of  Daniel  Webster, 
ed.  E.  P.  Whipple,  p.  ('>7. 


INTERNATWXAL    CONTROVERSIES.  267 

real  or  fancied  injustice  ;  law  provides  such  other 
remedy,  and  the  passion  dies  for  want  of  fuel  to 
feed  it. 

It  is,  indeed,  sometimes  said  that  there  are  some 
questions  which  could  not  be  submitted  to  such  an 
international  tribunal.  Would  you  submit,  it  is 
asked,  a  question  of  national  territory?  Why 
not  ?  Every  individual  citizen  holds  his  land  sub- 
ject to  the  decision  of  a  legal  tribunal.  Any  other 
citizen  may  bring  ejectment  suit  against  him ;  but 
his  tenure  is  not  weakened,  it  is  strengthened,  by 
that  fact.  Land-ownership  is  safer  in  England 
or  America,  where  it  is  defended  by  an  impar- 
tial tribunal,  than  in  Ashan tee-land,  where  it  is 
defended  by  the  bow  or  the  gun.  Would  you 
submit  a  question  of  national  honor  ?  Why  not  ? 
Formerly  questions  of  personal  honor  were  left 
to  be  settled  by  the  duel.  In  Anglo-Saxon  com- 
munities the  duel  is  abolished,  and  the  honor  of 
the  individual  citizen,  and  the  honor  of  his  wife 
and  his  children,  is  safer  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  law  than  it  was  formerly  under  the  guar- 
dianship of  private  battle. 

The  issue  between  war  and  law  has  been  decided 
by  civilization  in  favor  of  law  for  the  settlement  of 
all  personal  controversies.  War  has  been  brought 
under  law  in  international  controversies,  but  the 
consummation  of  Christian  progress  will  not  be 
attained  until  law  is  substituted  for  war,  reason 
for  force,  the  spiritual  for  the  animal,  Christianity 
for  barbarism. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Christ's  law  for  the  settlement  of  contro- 
versies: LABOR  CONTROVERSIES. 

In  two  preceding  chapters  I  have  endeavored 
first  to  elucidate  Christ's  general  instructions  re- 
specting the  settlement  of  controversies,  and,  next, 
to  show  the  special  application  of  these  instruc- 
tions to  controversies  between  different  nations. 
In  this  chaj^ter  I  propose  to  show  their  application 
to  the  controversies  in  the  modern  industrial  com- 
munity between  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist.  In 
order  to  do  this  it  is  first  necessary  to  trace  the 
history  of  these  controversies,  and  show  how  they 
have  arisen  and  come  to  their  present  threatening 
proportions. 

Individualism,  or  the  doctrine  of  laissez-faire,^ 
as  it  is  sometimes  called,  proposes,  as  the  remedy 
for    our    industrial    ills,  freedom    of   competition. 

1  ^''Laissez-faire^  —  a  letting  alone  ;  a  general  non-interference 
with  individual  freedom  of  action  ;  the  let-alone  principle  or 
policy  in  government  and  political  economy.  The  term  was  first 
used  in  France  to  designate  that  principle  of  political  economy 
which  would  leave  industry  and  trade  absolutely  free  from  taxa- 
tion or  restriction  by  government,  except  so  far  as  required  by 
public  peace  and  order.  It  has  since  been  extended  to  include 
non-interference  by  controlling  authority  with  any  guiltless  exer- 
cise of  individual  will." — Century  Dictionary. 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.       269 

This  was  a  great  advance  on  feudalism.  Under 
the  feudal  S3^stein  a  few  men  owned  the  land. 
Every  landowner  had  attached  to  his  land  a 
certain  number  of  villeins,  or  peasants,  and  these 
villeins  were  bound  to  do  their  lord's  will ;  and 
he,  on  his  part,  was  bound  to  protect  them  from 
aggression.  As  this  feudal  system  disappeared, 
there  emerged  a  philosophy,  respecting  the  rela- 
tions of  laborers  and  capitalists,  variously  entitled 
free  competition,  hfissez-faire,  freedom  of  contract, 
or,  from  the  city  where  it  was  especially  prominent, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Manchester  School.  That  doc- 
trine, briefly  stated,  was  this :  Let  the  men  who 
want  labor  pay  what  they  are  willing  to  pay ;  let 
the  laborers  who  want  work  take  what  they  are 
willing  to  take ;  as  a  result,  wages  will  adjust 
themselves.  Let  every  man  who  desires  work  to 
be  done  offer  what  he  is  willing  to  pay  for  the 
service  to  be  rendered.  Let  every  man  who  wants 
to  work,  work  for  the  wages  that  are  offered  to 
him  ;  if  he  does  not  like  the  price,  let  him  find 
work  somewhere  else.  If  labor  is  left  free,  and 
the  employer  buys  his  labor  in  the  cheapest  market 
and  the  laborer  sells  his  labor  in  the  highest  mar- 
ket by  free  competition  between  laborer  and  em- 
ployer, wages  will  adjust  themselves.^ 

So  long  as  individuals  are  dealing  with  indi- 
viduals, this  method  works  fairly  well.  There  is 
no  great  prospect  at  the  present  time,  for  instance, 
that  the  housekeepers  will  combine  together  to  fix 

^  See  ch.  iv.,  especially  quotation  from  Adam  Smith. 


-70      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    FROBLEMS. 

the  rate  of  wages  which  they  will  pay  their  cooks, 
or  that  the  cooks  will  combine  together  and  de- 
mand a  certain  rate  of  wages  adjusted  for  them- 
selves as  a  class ;  and  so  long  as  there  are  a 
thousand  housekeepers  wanting  cooks,  and  a  thou- 
sand cooks  wanting  employment,  there  is  probably 
no  better  way  to  adjust  the  rate  of  wages  than  to 
let  the  housekeeper  offer  the  cook  what  wages  a 
month  she  thinks  she  can  afford,  and  let  the  cook 
take  them  or  refuse  them,  as  she  pleases.  But 
individualism  as  the  method  of  industry  did  not 
long  survive.  Machinery  was  invented  ;  wherever 
it  was  introduced,  it  put  an  end  to  individual  em- 
ployment and  to  individual  industry.  Work  was 
carried  on  under  great  roofs  by  great  bodies  of 
men,  and  this  necessitated  an  aggregation  of 
capital  and  a  combination  of  employers.^  The 
employers  did  not,  at  first,  combine  to  gain  an 
advantage  over  the  workingmen  ;  they  combined 
because  it  was  not  possible  to  do  the  work  by 
modern  methods  in  any  other  way  than  by  com- 
bination. Instead  of  one  man  running  his  own 
loom,  or  one  woman  working  at  home  a  spinning- 
wheel,  there   were  a  thousand  men  in  one  cotton 

^  "  We  get  an  increasing  concentration  of  the  industry  into 
comparatively  few  works  along'  with  the  elimination  of  all  em- 
ployers not  well  sujiplied  with  capital.  The  number  of  spindles 
and  looms  in  England  doubled  itself  between  1850  and  1890, 
while  that  of  factories  only  rose  from  1,932  to  2,674  between  1850 
and  1878,  and  then  sank  back  again  to  2,5o8  in  1890,  though 
the  number  of  spindles  simultaneously  increased."  L.  J.  Brentano, 
Hours  and  Wages,  in  Relation  to  Production,  p.  59. 


SETTLEMEXT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      1^71 

factory,  all  working  under  one  great  captain  of 
industry,  with  his  lieutenants  and  his  sub-lieu- 
tenants. There  was  no  longer  free  competition ; 
no  longer  an  opportunity  for  a  workingman  to 
take  a  job  or  refuse  it,  as  he  liked.  If  he  was 
not  satisfied  with  the  wages  that  were  offered  to 
him,  he  was  absolutely  powerless  to  resist  the 
combination  of  capital.  An  employer  of  labor 
has  a  thousand  men  in  his  factory.  He  says  to 
himself :  "  I  can  take  ten  cents  off  the  wages  of 
this  thousand  men  ;  that  will  give  me  one  hundred 
dollars  a  day  more  profit,  130,000  a  year  in  divi- 
dends. It  is  worth  trying."  This  has  been  fre- 
quently done.  John  says,  "  I  cannot  afford  to 
work  for  ten  cents  less  a  day."  But  what  can 
John  do  ?  He  has  a  home,  a  mortgage  on  it ;  a 
wife  and  children  dependent  on  his  industry.  If 
he  abandons  work,  he  must  go  tramping  through 
the  towns  until  he  can  find  some  other  great  cor- 
porate industry  that  is  carrying  on  the  work  in 
the  same  way,  and  has  a  vacancy  for  him.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  employer  runs  no  risk.  If  he 
discharges  John  he  can  find  some  one  else,  if  not 
to  work  at  lower  wages,  at  least  to  work  at  the 
rate  of  wages  he  is  paying  now.  He  will  have  to 
pay  no  more  when  John  departs,  and  he  may  jmy 
less. 

Workingmen  discovered  this.  They  found  out 
that  capital  was  necessarily  a  combination,  and 
they  said :  "  We  also  must  combine."  Thus  the 
trade  union  arose.     Some  men  have  endeavored  to 


272      CHRISTJAXITY    AXl)    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

trace  the  trade  union  back  to  the  old  guilds  of  the 
Middle  Ao-es,  but  there  is  no  vital  connection 
between  the  two.^  The  phrase  "  trade  union  "  came 
into  existence  about  the  year  1830,  and  the  organ- 
ization itself  came  into  existence  about  the  same 
time.  AVhat,  then,  is  a  trade  union  ?  Primarily, 
it  is  an  organization  of  workingmen  to  promote 
their  own  interests.  It  may  have,  and  it  often  has 
had,  for  its  object,  education,  insurance,  social 
culture,  social  enjoyment,  —  matters  wholly  apart 
from  labor  controversy.  But  it  also  very  often 
becomes  a  military  organization,  formed  for  pro- 
tection, if  not  aggression,  in  controversies  with 
employers,  —  military  in  spirit,  though  not  in 
structure.^ 

1  "  The  supposed  descent  of  the  Trade  Unions  from  the  Medi- 
aeval Craft  Guild  rests,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  discover, 
upon  no  evidence  whatever.  The  historical  proof  is  all  the  other 
way.  In  London,  for  instance,  more  than  one  Trade  Union  has 
preserved  an  unbroken  existence  from  the  eig-hteenth  century. 
The  Craft  Guilds  still  exist  in  the  City  companies,  and  at  no  point 
in  their  history  do  we  find  the  slig-htest  evidence  of  the  branching- 
off  from  them  of  independent  journeymen's  societies."  —  S.  and 
B.  Webb,  History  of  Trade  Unions,  p.  13. 

^  There  is  a  popular  impression  that  the  trade  union  is  formed 
on  the  plan  of  all  military  org-anizations,  and  that  the  power  is 
intrusted  to  one  or  two  leaders,  who  have  authority  to  order  a 
strike,  and  that  strikes  are  g-enerally  so  ordered,  in  spite  of  the 
reluctance  of  the  body  of  the  strikers.  There  seems  to  be  very 
little  real  ground  for  this  impression.  Probably  no  writer  on 
economics  in  the  United  States  has  made  as  close  and  careful  a 
study  of  these  org-anizations,  or  is  as  familiar  with  their  constitu- 
tions, as  Professor  Ely,  and  he  says :  "  The  surrender  of  personal 
liberty  is  often  regarded  as  a  condition  of  membership  in  a  trade 
union,  but  this  is  little  more  than  a  fiction  in  the  case  of  any 


SETTLEMEXr    OF   LABOR    COXTROVKRSIES.      273 

When  trade  unions  were  first  organized  in  Eng- 
land, a  vigorous  attempt  was  made  to  destroy 
them.  First,  Parliament  passed  laws  prohibiting 
them  as  conspiracy  ;  but  the  laws  broke  down  and 
were  repealed.  Then  the  capitalists  banded  to- 
gether and  resolved  that  they  would  employ  no 
man  who  belonged  to  a  trade  union.  They  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  up  trade  unions  for  a  few 
years,  but  the  only  result  was  new  organizations 
stronger  than  the  old  ones.  The  attempt  to  de- 
stroy the  organization  of  labor  has  been  made  in 
England,  under  circumstances  much  more  favor- 
able to  the  attempt  than  ever  existed,  or  are  likely 
to  exist,  in  the  United  States,  and  the  attempt  has 
proved    an    utter    failure.^      The    organization    of 

well-managed  labor  org-anization.  Those  who  furnish  capital 
place  its  management  in  the  hands  of  a  few ;  those  who  furnish 
labor  do  so,  though  to  far  less  extent.  What  Mr.  Traut  says  of  a 
strike  (in  his  excellent  little  work,  Trade  Union,  London,  1884, 
Kegan  Paul,  French  &  Co.)  is  true  of  most  affairs  of  trade 
unions:  'The  idea  that  a  strike  depends  upon  the  ipse  dixit  of 
a  paid  agitator,  or  that  if  the  men  were  to  vote  by  ballot  on  the 
question  they  would  never  consent  to  a  strike,  is  conceived  by 
those  only  who  do  not  know  what  a  trade  union  is.  In  most 
cases  a  strike  is  the  result  of  action  taken  by  the  men  them- 
selves in  each  district,  the  executive  having  more  power  to  pre- 
vent a  strike  than  to  initiate  one.'  "  —  R.  T.  Ely,  The  Labor  Move- 
ment in  America,  p.  100. 

In  fact,  in  the  history  of  strikes  in  America,  the  strike  has 
been  probably  quite  as  often  due  to  the  passion  of  a  democratic 
meeting,  and  ordered  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  leaders,  as 
induced  by  the  passionate  appeals  of  the  leaders,  ovei-ruling  the 
cooler  judgment  of  the  men.  See,  below,  note  on  the  organization 
and  history  of  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

1   "The    right   of  the    workingmen    to  combine   and    to   form 


274      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

capital  and  the  organization  of  labor  are  perma- 
nent factors  in  the  civilization  of  the  future. 

The  trade  union,  then,  exists,  —  sometimes  a 
combination  of  trades  unions  ;  and  the  aggregation 
of  capital  exists,  often  a  combination  of  aggrega- 
tions of  capital.  For  when  this  process  of  organi- 
zation once  began,  it  went  on  increasing,  so  that 
we  had  recently,  for  instance,  all  the  great  rail- 
roads centring  in  Chicago  united  in  one  great 
capitalistic  organization,  and  the  attempt  made, 
not  altogether  successfully,  to  unite  all  the  rail- 
road employees  in  one  great  labor  union,  and  the 
two  engaging  in  a  great  trial  of  strength,  dis- 
astrous not  only  to  them,  but  also  to  the  entire 
community.^ 

trades  unions  is  no  less  sacred  than  the  right  of  the  manufacturer 
to  enter  into  association  and  conferences  with  his  fellows,  and  it 
must  be  sooner  or  later  conceded.  Indeed,  it  gives  one  but  a  poor 
opinion  of  the  American  workman  if  he  permits  himself  to  be 
deprived  of  a  right  which  his  fellow  in  England  has  conquered 
for  himself  long  since.  My  experience  has  been  that  trades 
unions,  upon  the  whole,  are  beneficial  both  to  labor  and  capital." 
Andrew  Carnegie,  Forum,  April,  188G,  p.  119.  See,  also,  S.  and  B. . 
Webb,  History  of  Trade  Unions,  passim,  for  history  of  the  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  destroy  them  in  England. 

^  The  history  of  these  organizations  is  worth  reporting  a  little 
more  fully,  since  it  illustrates  in  a  concrete  case  the  nature  of  the 
labor  war.  ''  The  General  Managers '  Association  included  the 
twenty-four  railroads  centring  or  terminating  in  Chicago.  It  was 
formed  in  1886.  In  its  constitution  the  object  of  the  Association 
is  stated  to  be  '  the  consideration  of  problems  of  management 
arising  from  the  oj^eration  of  railroads  terminating  or  centring 
at  Chicago.'  It  further  provides  that  all  funds  needed  shall 
be  raised  by  assessments  divided  equally  among  the  members. 
There   are  no   limitations  as   to  '  consideration   of  problems '  or 


SETTLEMENT   OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      275 

"  The  solidarity  of  labor "  has  come  to  be  one 
of  the  common  phrases  of  our  newspaper  litera- 
ture, and  the  conception  that  exists  in  the  minds 
of  not  a  few  men,  especially  of  labor  leaders,  is  an 

'  funds,'  except  the  will  of  the  managers  and  the  resources  of 
the  railroad  corporations.  Prior  to  the  great  strike  in  June,  1894, 
the  Association  dealt  incidentally  and  infrequently  with  wages. 
But  it  fixed  a  '  Chicago  scale '  for  switchmen,  covering  all  lines 
at  Chicago,  and  also  prepared  elaborate  schedules  of  the  wages 
paid  upon  the  entire  lines  of  its  twenty-four  members.  It  was 
deemed  wise  not  to  act  upon  this  report,  which,  however,  was  dis- 
tributed to  the  railroads  in  November,  1893,  and  ^cted  as  an 
'  equalizer '  of  wages.  Reductions  were  here  and  there  made  on 
the  different  roads.  It  is  admitted  that  the  action  of  the  Asso- 
ciation has  great  weight  with  outside  lines,  and  this  tends  to 
establish  one  uniform  scale  throughout  the  country.  The  further 
single  step  of  admitting  lines  not  running  into  Chicago  into  mem- 
bership would  certainly  have  the  effect  of  combining  all  railroads 
in  wage  contentions  against  all  employees  thereon."  —  Eeport  on 
the  Chicago  Strike,  pp.  28-30. 

"  The  American  Railway  Union  was  an  association  of  about 
150,000  railroad  employees,  as  alleged,  organized  at  Chicago  on 
the  20th  of  June,  1893,  for  the  purpose  of  including  railway  em- 
ployees born  of  white  parents,  in  one  great  brotherhood.  .  .  .  The 
theory  underlying  the  movements  was,  that  the  organization  of 
different  classes  of  railroad  employees  (to  the  number  of  about 
140,000),  upon  the  trade-union  idea,  has  ceased  to  be  useful 
or  adequate  ;  that  pride  of  organization,  petty  jealousies,  and 
the  conflict  of  views,  etc.,  tend  to  defeat  the  common  object  of 
all.  and  enable  railroads  to  use  such  organizations  against  each 
other  in  contentions  over  wages,  etc. ;  that  the  rapid  concentration 
of  railroad  capital  and  management  demands  a  like  union  of  their 
employees  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  protection  ;  that  the  inter- 
ests of  each  of  the  850,000,  and  over,  railroad  employees  of  the 
United  States  as  to  wages,  treatment,  hours  of  labor,  legislation, 
insurance,  mutual  aid,  etc.,  are  common  to  all,  and  hence  all  ought 
to  belong  to  one  organization  that  shall  assert  its  united  strength 
in  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  every  member."  —  Idem,  p.  23. 


276      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

organization  of  all  labor  in  one  great  army  for  its 
own  protection.  Thus  we  have  two  camps,  —  capi- 
tal gathered  in  corporations  and  in  aggregations 
of  corporations,  or  trusts ;  labor  organizations  in 
trades  unions,  or  in  great  conglomerate  organiza- 
tions, like  the  Railway  Union,  and  the  Knights  of 
Labor,^  and  the  International ;  and  every  now  and 
then  a  bitter  war  breaking  out  between  them  in 
what  are  called  strikes. 

^  "  The  Knights  of  Labor  were  org-anized  in  1809  in  Phila- 
delphia, by  Uriah  S.  Stevens,  a  elothing--cutter  of  that  city.  Its 
first  declaration  of  principles  was  made  in  1878.  The  order  has 
undergone  some  radical  changes  since  its  principles  were  first 
formulated.  It  grew  rapidly,  and  its  membership  was  at  one 
time  nearly  half  a  million.  It  has  recently  suffered  a  decrease  in 
membership  through  various  causes,  and  in  1895  its  membership 
was  estimated  to  be  150,000.  It  is  represented  in  nearly  every 
State  by  its  Local  and  District  Assemblies.  It  was  at  first  a 
secret  order,  with  many  Masonic  features,  its  obligations  being  in 
the  nature  of  oaths  taken  on  the  Bible.  This  secrecy  and  the 
oath-bound  obligations  were  abandoned  in  1881,  from  which  time 
the  real  growth  of  the  order  dates.  Tlie  order  has  a  systematic 
and  methodical  constitution  of  tliirteen  articles.  Up  to  1883  funds 
for  the  support  of  strikes  were  raised  by  a  tax  on  the  members, 
but  in  that  year  the  strike  laws  of  the  order  were  made  so 
rigid  that  tliey  practically  amount  to  a  prohibition  of  strikes,  so 
far  as  the  support  of  the  order  is  concerned.  The  laws  now  in 
force  do  not  permit  the  support  of  a  strike  by  the  whole  order. 
Women  are  admitted  upon  an  equal  footing  with  men.  All  occu- 
pations are  embraced  in  the  organization,  except  lawyers,  bank- 
ers, speculators,  liquor-dealers  :  no  man  who  derives  any  benefit 
or  income  from  the  sale  of  intoxicating'  drinks  is  allowed  in  the 
order.  The  order  consists  of  Local  and  District  Assemblies  and  a 
general  convention  of  Delegates."  See  "  Hist.  Sketch  of  the 
Knights  of  Labor,"  by  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Quarterly  Journal  of 
Economics.,  January,  1887 ;  Industrial  Evolution  in  the  United 
States,  by  same  author,  pp.  245-263. 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    COXTJiOVERSJES.      277 

What  is  a  strike ?  "A  strike,"  says  Carroll  D. 
Wright,  1  ''  occurs  when  the  employees  of  an  estab- 
lishment refuse  to  work  unless  the  management 
complies  with  some  demand  made  upon  it."  It  is, 
therefore,  simply  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
workingmen  to  carry  out  by  organized  action  what, 
under  the  principle  of  the  Manchester  School,  or 
individualism,  it  was  recommended  they  should 
carry  out  in  individual  action.^  John  says,  I  will 
not  work  for  ten  cents  a  day  less  ;  and  John  finds 
that  it  is  useless  for  him  to  say  this  alone,  so  he 
proposes  to  the  other  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
employees  in  this  factory  to  make  common  cause. 
An  injury  to  one  is  an  injury  to  all :  let  us  all 
agree  that  we  will  not  work  for  ten  cents  less  a 
day.     And  when  all  have  made  a  common  cause. 


1  C.  D.  Wrig-ht,  Industrial  Evolution  in  the  U.  S..  p.  293. 

■^  "  A  strike  is  a  concerted  susj)ension  of  work  by  wage-workers 
of  either  sex  in  the  employ  of  wage-payers,  for  an  alleged  non- 
fulfillment of  a  contract,  or  as  a  protest  at  the  alleged  imposition 
of  new  demands ;  or  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  some  benefit,  de- 
clared to  be  deserved  on  account  of  new  conditions  in  the  line  of 
industry  pursued,  or  in  the  cost  of  living  ;  or  for  the  correction  of 
personal  offenses  against  wage-workers,  especially  females,  com- 
mitted by  the  managers  or  their  subordinates.  .  .  .  That  any 
number  of  men  in  this  country  have  a  right  to  combine,  organize 
and  act  together  for  the  lawful  promotion  of  their  convictions,  or 
tlieir  common  interests,  ought  by  this  time  to  be  beyond  dispute. 
There  is  something  absurd  in  setting  about  proving  what  nothing 
but  impudence  could  deny.  If  a  number  of  men  may  combine  to 
raise  or  keep  uj)  the  price  of  oil,  wheat,  or  sugar,  then  there  may 
be  a  union  to  raise  or  keep  up  the  price  of  labor.''  —  Strikes  :  the 
Right  and  the  Wrong,  by  F.  1).  Huntington.  S.  T.  D.,  LL.  D., 
Bishop  of  Central  New  York.     E.  P.  Dutton  cV:  Co. 


278      CHRIST  J  AX/Tr   AXB    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

and  have  combined  to  say,  We  will  not  work  for 
ten  cents  less  a  day,  then  the  superintendent  of  the 
factory  has  to  stop  and  think  whether  he  will  cut 
down  the  wages  ten  cents  a  day  —  what  it  may 
cost  him.  The  strike  is,  in  its  initiative,  simply  a 
thousand  men  saying.  We  do  not  like  the  job,  or 
we  will  not  work  for  the  wages  proffered,  as  before 
the  one  man  said,  I  do  not  like  the  job,  or  I  will 
not  work  for  the  wages  proffered.  So  long  as  one 
man  so  acted,  it  brought  no  great  inconvenience 
to  the  community  or  to  his  employer  ;  but  wdien  a 
thousand  men  combine,  —  and  not  only  a  thousand 
men,  but  many  thousands  of  men  all  over  the 
country,  in  a  great  variety  of  localities,  are  con- 
tinually combining,  —  to  leave  the  mill  idle  and 
cause  the  work  to  stop,  it  does  produce  great  incon- 
venience and  great  disadvantage. 

It  must  be  frankly  said  that  workingmen  have 
gained  much  by  their  labor  organizations,  and 
sometimes  by  strikes.  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
strikes  are  always  failures.  This  is  not  true.  Mr. 
Carroll  D.  Wright,  who  can  be  trusted  in  the  mat- 
ter of  statistics  as  well  as  any  man  either  in  Amer- 
ica or  Europe,  has  reported  the  results  of  strikes 
during  a  period  of  a  little  over  twelve  years  (1881- 
1893),  and  in  about  fifty  per  cent,  of  those  strikes 
the  workingmen  won,  either  in  whole  or  in  part.^ 

1  From  1881  to  1894,  including'  six  months  only  of  the  latter 
year,  he  reports  successful  strikes  44,49  per  cent.,  partly  success- 
ful 11.25  per  cent.,  failures  44.23  per  cent.  Bulletin  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor,  No.  1,  November,  1895,  p.  20.  From  1881  to 
1886  he  reports  of  3,902  strikes  40.52  per  cent,  successful,  13,47 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      279 

It  must  always  be  recognized,  too,  that  labor  organ- 
izations have  had  the  effect  to  raise  wages,  which 
are  nearly  always  better  in  organized  than  in  un- 
organized trades.  They  are  nowhere  so  poor,  and 
nowhere  are  working  people  so  badly  treated,  as 
where  there  is  no  labor  organization.^ 

These  two  facts  the  candid  student  of  history,  I 
think,  must  recognize.  But,  having  recognized 
these,  if  he  is  candid  he  must  also  recognize  that 
strikes  are  war ;  and  war  inflicts  incalculable  in- 
jury upon  all  who  are  engaged  in  it.    During  seven 

per  cent,  partially  successful,  39.95  per  cent,  failures.  In  a  paper 
on  strikes  in  Great  Britain,  by  G.  P.  Bevan,  he  reports,  concerning 
851  strikes  in  that  country  from  1870  to  1879,  189  failures,  71 
successful,  91  partially  successful,  —  a  little  under  fifty  per  cent, 
successful  in  whole  or  in  part.  The  lowest  proportion  of  success- 
ful strikes  I  have  found  is  reported  from  Massaciiusetts,  where 
of  149  strikes  only  18  were  successful  and  22  partially  successful, 
while  109  failed.  See,  further,  Jos.  D.  Weeks,  Labor  Differences 
and  their  Settlement,  p.  34,  and  facts  cited  from  the  State  Senate 
Committee  on  Labor  and  Capital  in  Prof.  R.  T.  Ely's  Labor 
Movement  in  America,  which  shows  in  one  case  204  successful 
strikes  out  of  362  among-  the  cigar-makers.  When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  in  all  industrial  controversies  it  is  customary  for  the 
negotiators  to  demand  more  than  they  expect,  in  order  to  form  a 
basis  for  a  compromise,  it  is  clear  that  the  proportion  of  success- 
ful strikes  has  been  large. 

1  The  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  as  every  one  knows,  a  wealthy 
employer  of  labor,  has  well  said  that  it  is  only  after  labor  is  or- 
ganized that  the  contending  parties  are  in  a  condition  to  treat. 
"  The  great  result  is,  that  capital  is  ready  to  discuss.  It  is  not  to 
be  disguised  that,  until  labor  presented  itself  in  such  an  attitude 
as  to  compel  a  hearing,  capital  was  not  willing  to  listen,  but  now 
it  does  listen.  The  results  already  obtained  are  full  of  encourage- 
ment." Paper  read  before  the  Church  Congress  in  Cincinnati, 
quoted  in  Labor  Movement,  by  Richard  T.  Ely,  p.  146. 


280      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

and  one  half  years,  in  the  principal  cities  of  the 
United  States,  there  were  six  thousand  controver- 
sies between  employers  and  employed,  of  such 
considerable  size  that  they  were  worth  reporting  in 
the  official  reports  of  the  Uiiited  States,  —  almost 
a  thousand  a  year  ;  and  by  means  of  those  strikes 
the  employed  have  lost  nearly  thirty-five  millions 
of  dollars,  and  the  employers  have  lost  over  twenty- 
eight  millions  of  dollars.  Sixty-three  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  spent  in  industrial  war  in  seven 
and  one  half  years  in  the  principal  cities  of  the 
United  States.^ 

But  that  is  the  least  of  the  evil.  The  loss  in 
wages  and  the  loss  in  profits  is  the  smallest  ele- 
ment. Man  has  been  set  against  his  brother  man  ; 
classes  have  been  formed  ;  a  rift  has  been  made  in 

1  In  26  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States,  from  Jan- 
uary 1, 1887,  to  June  30,  1894,  there  were  :  — 

Strikes 5,909 

Establishments 28,662 

Employees  thrown  out  .....  955,250 

Wag-e  loss  to  employees $34,988,100 

Assistance  to  employees  by  labor  org-anizations  .     $4,590,177 
Loss  to  employers    ......       $28,786,446 

Carroll    D.  Wright,    Bulletin    of  Labor,   No.    1,  November, 
1895,  p.  16. 

During  188  J -1886,  in  the  United  States,  the  losses  to  em- 
ployees for  strikes  and  lockouts  amounted  to  nearly  $60,000,000  ; 
the  loss  to  employers  was  nearly  $34,000,000,  making-  a  total  loss 
of  $94,000,000  in  six  years.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Industrial  Evo- 
lution in  the  United  States,  p.  299.  The  expenditures  for  the 
cigar-makers'  strikes  referred  to  in  a  previous  note  aggregated 
$286,444.67.  Testimony  of  Adolph  Strasser  before  Blair  Senate 
Committee. 


SETTLEMENT   OF  LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      281 

the  community  ;  the  laborer  has  been  taught  by 
every  new  war  to  regard  the  employer  as  his  en- 
emy ;  and  the  employer  has  been  taught  to  look 
with  suspicion,  if  not  with  aversion,  upon  the  em- 
ployed. No  one,  I  think,  can  look  upon  the  pres- 
ent unsettled  condition  of  industry  in  the  United 
States  and  not  feel  that  there  is  real  and  serious 
menace  to  the  country  in  the  antagonism  between 
class  and  class  which  strikes,  lockouts,  and  labor 
wars  have  begfot. 

For  my  part,  I  reiterate  my  disbelief  in  the  Man- 
chester School,  whether  its  doctrine  is  applied  to 
the  individual  or  to  great  organized  bodies.  If 
history  demonstrates  anything,  it  demonstrates  that 
it  is  not  true  that  we  can  find  any  method  what- 
ever by  which  men  can  live  in  this  world  on  the 
princij^le  simply  of  self-interest.  So  long  as  the 
employer  is  taught,  by  pulpit,  by  press,  or  by 
school  of  political  economy,  that  it  is  for  him  to 
get  his  labor  in  the  cheapest  market,  and  the 
laboring  man  is  taught  that  it  is  for  him  to  try  to 
get  the  highest  possible  wages,  —  so  long  as  each 
one  is  trying  to  get  all  he  can  and  to  give  as  little 
as  possible,  —  so  long  there  will  be  industrial  war. 
This  is  not  brotherhood.  This  is  not  the  spirit  in 
which  the  family  is  carried  on.  The  husband  does 
not  say.  How  much  can  I  get  out  of  my  wife,  and 
how  little  can  I  give  her  ?  The  wife  does  not  say, 
How  much  can  I  get  out  of  my  husband,  and  how 
little  can  I  give  him  ?  The  father  does  not  say, 
How  much  can  I  grind   out  of  my  children,  and 


282      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

how  little  can  I  give  them  ?  How  long  would  an)' 
family  cohere  on  that  principle  ?  The  wife  says, 
How  can  I  take  that  burden  off  my  husband  ?  the 
husband,  How  can  I  give  my  wife  more  comfort? 
The  father  and  mother  counsel.  How  can  we  make 
our  children  happier,  and  enlarge  and  enrich  their 
life  ?  And  the  children  consider.  What  can  we  do 
to  ease  the  burdens  of  over-worked  father  and  over- 
tired mother?  The  remedy  for  industrial  ills  is 
less  a  new  organization  than  a  new  spirit.  We 
want  a  "  Looking  Backward  "  containing  the  story 
of  a  lockout  and  a  strike,  —  the  employer  anxious 
to  see  how  few  hours  of  labor  he  can  put  on  his 
employed  and  make  it  profitable,  and  locking  out 
the  workingmen  because  they  work  too  many 
hours  ;  and  the  labor  union  studying  how  it  can 
do  the  most  work  for  the  employer,  and  striking 
because  he  pays  more  wages  than  he  can  afford 
on  a  falling  market. 

The  fundamental  principle  —  if  it  can  be  called 
a  principle  —  that  underlies  the  industrial  war  is 
all  wrong.  The  solidarity  of  labor  in  the  one 
camp,  and  the  solidarity  of  capital  in  the  other 
camp,  is  against  the  solidarity  of  society.  W. 
Stanley  Jevons,  one  of  the  ablest  political  think- 
ers in  Great  Britain,  has  laid  down  the  law  which 
is  Christian  as  well  as  scientific :  — 

"  The  present  doctrine  is,  that  the  workmen's  interests 
are  linked  to  those  of  other  workmen,  and  the  employer's 
interest  to  those  of  other  employers.  Eventually  it  will 
be  seen  that  industrial  divisions  should  be  perpendicu- 


SETTLE  ME  XT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      283 

lar,  not  horizontal.  The  workmen's  interests  should  be 
bound  up  with  those  of  his  employer,  and  should  be 
pitted  in  fair  competition  against  those  of  other  work- 
men and  emi^loyers.  There  would  then  be  no  arbitrary 
rates  of  wages,  no  organized  strikes,  no  long  disputes 
rendering  business  uncertain  and  hazardous.  The  best 
workmen  should  seek  out  the  best  master,  and  the  best 
master  the  best  workmen.  Zeal  to  produce  the  best  and 
the  cheapest  and  most  abundant  goods  would  take  the 
place  of  zeal  in  obstructive  organization.  The  faithful 
workman  would  not  only  receive  a  share  of  any  addi- 
tional profits  which  such  zeal  creates,  but  he  would 
become  a  shareholder  on  a  small  scale  in  the  firm,  and 
a  participator  in  the  insurance  and  superannuation  bene- 
fits which  the  firm  would  hold  out  to  him  with  approxi- 
mate certainty  of  solvency."  ^ 

That  is  both  the  politico-economic  and  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine. 

But,  meanwhile,  what  shall  we  do  when  labor 
controversies  arise  ?  Capital  is  organized ;  labor 
is  organized.  How  can  we  settle  controversies 
between  them  and  put  an  end  to  strife  ?  What  al- 
ternative is  there  for  strikes  and  lockouts  ?  Christ 
replies  :  Conciliation,  arbitration,  law.^ 

First,  conciliation.  Joseph  D.  Weeks  is  known 
by  name  to  most  men  who  know  anything  about 
the  industrial  situation  as  having  for  many  years 
represented  the  ironmasters  of  Penns3dvania  in 
the  questions  which  have  arisen  between  the  iron- 
masters and  their  men;  and  in  a  little  pamphlet 

1  The  State  in  Relation  to  Labor,  by  W.  Stanley  Jevons,  p.  145. 

2  See  Matt,  xviii.  15-17,  and  ante,  ch.  ix.,  pp.  242,  243. 


284      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  his,  to  which  I  desire  to  acknowledge  great 
indebtedness  for  my  own  views  on  the  labor  ques- 
tion, he  expresses  the  spirit  which  should  actuate 
masters  in  their  negotiations  with  their  men,  — 
the  true  spirit  of  conciliation.  After  speaking  of 
the  error  involved  in  a  failure  to  recognize  the 
changed  relations  and  new  conditions  which  mod- 
ern industrial  life  has  brought  about,  he  proceeds 
as  follows :  — 

"  The  source  of  this  error  is  chiefly  in  the  idea, 
inherited  from  feudal  days  and  justified  by  much  of 
the  legislation  and  political  economy  of  modern  times, 
that  the  employer  is  the  superior,  the  employee  an 
inferior  ;  that  it  is  the  right  of  the  former  to  determine, 
the  duty  of  the  latter  to  acquiesce.  This  view  does  not 
often  express  itself  bluntly  in  words,  but  it  does  more 
or  less  unconsciously  in  acts.  The  employer  assumes 
the  sole  right  to  determine,  and  refuses  to  discuss  ques- 
tions that  arise  in  connection  with  wages  or  the  details 
of  employment,  in  the  decision  of  which  the  employee 
has  an  interest  equally  with  the  employer  ;  or,  if  such 
discussions  take  place,  they  are  '  j^ermitted,'  an  inter- 
view is  'granted.'  In  case  of  a  meeting,  the  employer 
assumes  the  right  to  dictate  its  method.  '  No  commit- 
tee will  be  recognized.'  The  employer  also  claims  the 
right,  in  many  cases,  to  determine  the  relation  an  em 
ployee  shall  hold  to  his  fellows,  and  prohibits  his  mem- 
bership in  a  union.  In  all  of  these,  and  in  many 
similar  cases,  there  is  an  assumed  superiority  of  con- 
dition which  does  not  exist  in  reality,  however  much  it 
may  be  asserted  by  word  or  act.  The  true  relation 
of  emjjloyer   and   employed    is    that    of  independent 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      285 

e(iuals,  uniting  their  efforts  to  a  given  end,  each  with 
the  2>oiver,  ivithin  certain  limits,  to  determine  his  own 
rights,  but  not  to  prescribe  the  duties  of  the  other. 
The  employer  has  no  more  right  to  dictates  or  even 
decide  how  labor  shall  seek  its  interests  than  labor  has 
to  dictate  to  the  employer.  Whatever  may  be  the  views 
of  the  latter  as  to  trade  unionism,  it  will  be  well,  in 
most  cases,  especially  in  great  centres  of  industry,  or 
in  those  employments  uniting  great  bodies  of  men  under 
one  management,  if,  with  the  best  grace  possible,  he 
accept  the  fact  of  combination  and  deal  with  its  repre- 
sentatives. Such  combinations,  with  all  their  faults  and 
follies,  are  not  entirely  bad."  ^ 

In  this  quotation  I  have  put  in  italics  what 
might  well  be  framed  and  hung  in  every  factory 
and  counting-room,  and  in  every  trade-union  lodge, 
and  taught  as  the  first  and  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  industrial  business  in  every  institution  of 
learning  which  deals  directly  or  indirectly  with  the 
labor  problem.  Where  this  spirit  prevails,  labor 
difficulties  are  reduced  to  a  minimum.  If  it  pre- 
vailed everywhere,  labor  war  would  cease  alto- 
gether. 

Mr.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  an  address  delivered 
March  15,  1895,  before  the  Young  Men's  Demo- 
cratic Club,  and  published  in  the  "  Boston  Herald," 
gives  the  following  illustration  of  the  practical  ap- 
plication of  this  principle  and  its  beneficial  effect. 
It  is  not  only  interesting  as  an  illustration  of  the 

1  Labor  Differences  and  their  Settlement,  by  Joseph  D.  Weeks, 
p.  10. 


L'86      CHRISTJAXITY   AX  I)    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

principle  stated  by  Mr.  Weeks ;  it  is  also  valuable 
as  an  evidence  that  practical  business  men  familiar 
with  the  industrial  problems  of  our  time  uncon- 
sciously bear  concurrent  testimony  to  the  efficacy 
of  Christ's  principle  of  conciliation,  and  Christ's 
spirit  in  carrying  it  into  effect :  — 

"  But,  Mr.  President,  better  than  all,  involving  liigher 
elements  than  all,  going  far  beyond  arbitration  and 
deeper  than  the  power  and  the  authority  and  the  func- 
tion of  government,  is  the  settlement  of  questions  by 
men  themselves.  One  grand  illustration  comes  to  my 
mind  in  this  respect.  A  few  months  ago  the  employees 
of  the  Southern  Railway  Comj^any  —  a  new  combina- 
tion controlling  6,000  employees  and  4,500  miles  of 
track  —  demanded  of  the  management  a  restoration  of 
the  wages  paid  them  two  years  ago.  .  They  sent  their 
committee  to  Washington,  the  headquarters  of  the 
system,  and  laid  their  demands  before  the  managers. 
Their  demands  were  met  in  a  dignified,  manly,  and 
gentlemanly  manner.  The  men  were  told  that  they 
should  be  carefully  considered,  every  interest  canvassed, 
and  a  decision  given  them  at  such  a  time.  When  the 
time  arrived  for  the  decision,  the  management  laid 
before  the  men,  through  their  committee,  an  itemized 
statement  of  the  expenses  of  the  road  for  the  past  few 
years,  —  the  losses  which  it  had  sustained,  the  loss  in 
freight,  the  loss  in  jmssenger  traJBfic,  —  in  fact,  all  the 
financial  and  industrial  conditions  of  the  whole  system. 
This  statement  was  drawn  up  in  a  fair,  just,  and  candid 
manner,  and  submitted  to  the  committee  of  the  em- 
ployees. After  many  conferences,  to  which  the  officers 
of  the  different  brotherhoods  of  railway  employees  were 


SETTLE M EXT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      287 

admitted,  tlie  whole  matter  was  peaceably  and  amicably 
settled,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties,  and  the  men 
went  home  and  retm'ned  to  their  work  with  a  new 
dignity  added  to  their  characters,  —  the  dignity  of  men 
who  had  been  treated  honorably,  justly,  and  fairly ;  and 
the  manager,  our  own  Boston  boy,  William  H.  Baldwin, 
Jr.,  who  conducted  the  whole  affair,  went  to  his  home 
that  night  with  a  new  dignity  added  to  his  charac- 
ter, —  the  dignity  which  results  from  honorable,  manly 
action."  -^ 

Conciliation  will  not  always  succeed.  What 
next  ?  Arbitration.  That  is  to  say,  the  selection 
of  a  body  of  men  to  represent  the  interests  of  botli 
l^arties,  and  the  submission  of  the  question  at  issue 
to  that  body  for  its  solution.  The  Board  of  Arbi- 
tration may  be  temporary  ;  it  may  be  permanent ; 
what  is  essential  is,  that  it  should  have  the  confi- 
dence of  both  classes.  England  in  this  respect  is 
in  advance  of  the  United  States.  Daniel  J.  Ryan, 
in  his  monograph  on  Arbitration,^  thus  describes 
its  results  in  the  iron  district  in  the  North  of  Ens:- 
land,  where  formerly  the  condition  was  one  of 
chronic  war  between  laborer  and  capitalist :  — 

''  For  sixteen  years  the  disputes  of  labor  and  capital 
in  the  rolling-mills  of  England  have  been  settled  by 
arbitration,  and  it  has  been  an  era  remarkably  free 
from  strikes.  The  Board  of  Arbitration  for  the  North 
of  England  iron  business  was,  as  all  efforts  of  this  kind 

^  See  further,  on  conciliation,  Henry  Crorapton's  monograph  on 
Industrial  Conciliation,  H.  S,  King-  &  Co.,  London. 

'^  Arbitration  between  Capital  and  Labor :  a  History  and  an 
Argument,  by  Daniel  J.  Ryan,  pp.  68,  69. 


288      CHRISTIANITY  AXD    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

usually  are,  the  outgrowth  of  a  strike.  It  was  formed 
on  March  22,  1869.  It  is  a  permanent  institution,  and 
has  the  usual  equal  rei^resentation  of  employers  and 
employed,  as  well  as  the  conciliation  committee  taken 
from  the  members  of  the  Board  ;  in  truth,  arbitration 
in  its  just  and  full  ai)plication  must  necessarily  be  about 
alike  in  all  systems  and  trades.  Speaking  of  this  board, 
Mr.  Weeks,  in  his  report,  says  :  '  At  the  close  of  1875 
it  represented  thirty-five  works  and  13,000  subscribed 
operatives.  These  works  had  1,913  puddling  fur- 
naces, —  more  than  all  Pennsylvania,  and  half  as  many 
as  the  entire  United  States.  During  the  year  1875  the 
standing  committee  investigated  forty  disputes.  Since 
its  organization  there  have  been  eight  or  nine  arbitra- 
tions on  the  general  questions  of  wages,  and  scores  of 
references  in  regard  to  special  adjustment  of  wages  at 
particular  works.'  The  awards  of  the  Board  from  1869 
to  1874  in  fixing  wages  have  been  freel}^  and  honorably 
accepted  without  a  single  repudiation ;  and  this  has 
been  uniform,  both  in  the  decrease  and  the  increase  of 
wages." 

Thus  far,  at  least  in  the  United  States,  the 
efforts  to  secure  arbitration  have  emanated  from 
labor  organizations  rather  than  from  organiza- 
tions of  capitalists.  The  Brotherhood  of  Carpen- 
ters and  Joiners,  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  the  Iron-Moulders'  Union,  and  the  Knights 
of  Labor  have  all  officially  declared  themselves 
as  opposed  to  strikes  and  in  favor  of  arbitration. 
Perhaps  the  greater  success  of  this  method  of 
settling  labor  disputes  in  England  may  be  due  to 
the   fact  that  it  has  had  more  cordial  and  spon- 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      289 

taneous  support  from  the  employers.  The  initia- 
tive came  from  the  manufacturers.  "  Three  of 
us,"  says  Mr.  Mundella,  giving  an  account  of  the 
oriiiin  of  this  movement  in  Eno^land,  "  met  a  dozen 
leaders  of  the  trade  unions.  We  consulted  with 
these  men,  and  told  them  that  the  present  plan 
was  a  bad  one ;  that  they  took  every  advantage  of 
us  when  we  had  a  demand,  and  we  took  every 
advantao'e  of  them  when  trade  was  bad ;  and 
it  was  a  system  mutually  predatory.  Well,  the 
men  were  very  suspicious  at  first ;  indeed,  it  is 
impossible  to  describe  to  you  how  suspiciously 
we  looked  at  each  other.  Some  of  the  manu- 
facturers also  deprecated  our  proceedings,  and  said 
that  we  were  degrading  them.  However,  we  had 
some  ideas  of  our  own,  and  we  went  on  with  them, 
and  we  sketched  out  what  w^e  called  a  '  Board  of 
Arbitration  and  Conciliation.'  "  But,  the  suspicions 
of  the  workingmen  once  overcome,  they  entered 
cordially  into  this  endeavor  to  substitute  a  trial 
of  reason  for  a  trial  of  strength  \i\  the  settlement 
of  labor  controversies.  "  My  experience,"  says  Mr. 
Rupert  Kettle,  an  English  lawyer  and  judge,  and 
an  authority  on  this  subject,  "  is  that,  when  the 
masters  and  the  men  meet  as  men  of  business  and 
discuss  their  business  matters  together  with  per- 
fect freedom,  it  is  the  greatest  possible  relief,  both 
to  the  men  and  to  the  masters,  that  they  appre- 
ciate the  opportunity  of  coming  and  discussing  the 
matter  candidly  and  fairly  with  one  another,  and 
I    have   never   found  the    men  unreasonable,  nor 


290      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

have  I  found  the  masters  unreasonable.  Some- 
times I  have  heard  untenable  ]3ropositions  enun- 
ciated on  either  side,  but  the  general  result  is  that 
they  meet  in  a  proper  spirit  and  come  to  a  satis- 
factory arrangement."  Mr.  Mundella  confirms 
this  testimony :  "  The  very  men  that  the  manu- 
facturers dreaded  were  the  men  that  were  sent 
to  represent  the  workmen  at  the  Board.  We 
found  them  the  most  straightforward  men  we 
could  desire  to  have  to  deal  with ;  we  have  often 
found  that  the  power  behind  them  has  been  too 
strong  for  them ;  they  are  generally  the  most  in- 
telligent men  ;  and  often  they  are  put  under  great 
pressure  by  workmen  outside  to  do  things  which 
they  know  to  be  contrary  to  common  sense,  and 
they  will  not  do  them.  They  have  been  the  great- 
est barriers  we  have  had  between  the  ignorant 
workmen  and  ourselves."  ^ 

It  is  sometimes  said  by  employers  there  is  no- 
thing to  arbitrate,  and  it  must  be  confessed  that 
there  are  some  questions  which  cannot  be  sub- 
mitted to  arbitration.  Such  are  questions  directly 
involving  a  moral  principle.  The  employer  has  no 
right  to  demand  that  the  workingman  shall  leave 
his  labor  organization.  To  submit  to  that  demand 
is  to  surrender  personal  liberty.  The  trade  union 
has   no   right  to  demand  that  the  enq^loyer  shall 

^  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  Industrial  Arbitration  and  Con- 
ciliation., pp.  25,  26.  Compare  Andrew  Carnegie  in  the  Forum  for 
April,  1880,  p.  118 :  "I  would  lay  it  down  as  a  maxim  that  there 
is  no  excuse  for  a  strike  or  a  lockout  until  arbitration  of  differ- 
ences has  been  offered  by  one  party  and  refused  by  the  other.*' 


SETTLEMENT    OF   LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      291 

discharge  a  man  because  he  does  not  belong  to  the 
trade  union.  This  is  to  demand  that  he  interfere 
with  the  personal  liberty  of  the  workingman  ;  and 
there  are  few  if  any  conditions  in  which  it  can  be 
right  to  submit  to  such  a  demand  as  that,  and  to  do 
wrong  to  another  innocent  man  in  order  to  protect 
one's  self  from  injustice.  Liberty  is  worth  bat- 
tling for.  But  all  questions  of  mere  self-interest 
are  properly  subjects  of  arbitration,  and  the  ques- 
tion whether  any  particular  controversy  is  a  subject 
of  arbitration  is  itself  a  proper  subject  to  be  left 
to  arbitrators. 

Christ's  first  principle  for  the  settlement  of  con- 
troversies is  conciliation ;  his  second,  arbitration  ; 
the  third  is  law.  Are  there  any  industrial  disputes 
which  should  be  settled  by  the  law,  and  the  settle- 
ment of  which  should  be  enforced  by  the  law  ?  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  there  are  such 
questions.  The  public  have  rights  as  well  as  the 
contestants ;  and  when  a  labor  war  inflicts  a  great 
disaster  upon  the  community,  the  community  has  a 
right  to  interfere,  put  a  stop  to  the  war,  and  com- 
pel the  contestants  to  abide  by  its  decision.  A 
recent  railroad  strike  in  Buffalo  cost  the  State  of 
New  York,  it  is  said,  thirty  thousand  dollars  a  day, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  cost  to  the  militiamen,  who 
were  taken  from  business,  to  keep  the  peace  while 
the  railroad  and  its  employees  settled  their  quar- 
rels. During  the  strike  on  the  Burlington  & 
Quincy  Railroad,  scores  of  towns  were  left  without 
their  usual  means  of  transportation,  and  the  incon- 


292      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

venience  and  loss  inflicted  npon  the  people  of  Iowa 
and  Illinois  were  beyond  all  calculation.  The 
great  railroad  strike  on  the  Lehigh  Valley  left  for 
some  weeks  the  seaboard  cities,  which  were  depen- 
dent upon  that  railroad  for  their  coal  supply,  to 
suffer,  all  of  them  from  extortionate  prices,  and 
some  of  them  from  actual  cold.  For  nearly  a 
week  during  a  recent  car  strike  in  Brooklyn  many 
of  its  citizens  were  compelled  to  walk  from  their 
homes  to  business  and  back  again,  being  deprived 
of  their  usual  method  of  transportation,  until  the 
trial  of  strength  between  the  motormen  and  the 
corporations  was  ended.  The  losses  to  the  country 
due  to  the  great  railroad  strike  at  Chicago  are  esti- 
mated by  Bradstreet  to  be  in  the  vicinity  of  eighty 
millions  of  dollars. 

If  two  roughs  get  into  a  quarrel  on  the  public 
street  they  are  not  allowed  to  fight  it  out ;  the 
policemen  arrest  them  both,  and  they  are  compelled 
to  submit  their  controversy  to  a  court  of  justice. 
But  the  inconvenience  to  the  public  from  a  quarrel 
between  two  roughs  upon  the  street  is  insignificant 
as  compared  to  the  inconvenience  inflicted  by  a 
great  struggle  between  labor  and  capital  affecting 
our  great  lines  of  transportation,  national  or  mu- 
nicipal. What  is  infelicitously  called  "  compulsory 
arbitration,"  what  should  be  more  tersely  called 
law,  is  simply  the  application  to  controversies  be- 
tween classes  of  citizens  of  the  same  principle 
which  has  long  since  been  applied  to  the  settlement 
of  controversies  between    individual  citizens.      It 


SETTLEMENT   OF  LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      293 

is  the  simple  affirmation  that  the  community  has 
rights  which  both  contestants  may  be  compelled  to 
respect.  Compulsory  arbitration  is  simply  the 
application  to  the  settlement  of  industrial  con- 
troversies of  the  same  essential  principle  which  is 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  by  all  civilized 
states,  employed  for  the  settlement  of  other  con- 
troversies. It  devolves  upon  those  who  do  not  be- 
lieve that  this  principle  can  be  so  applied  to  show 
why  it  is  inapplicable. 

They  have  attempted  to  do  this.  It  is  said  in 
the  first  place,  in  general  terms,  that  there  are  se- 
rious objections  to  any  plan  proposed  for  securing 
peace  in  a  community,  the  individual  members  of 
which  are  covetous,  selfish,  passionate,  ambitious. 
That  is  true.  All  such  plans  are  in  the  nature  of 
makeshifts.  They  are  lesser  evils  endured  to 
escape  greater  evils.  We  pay  annually  enormous 
sums  in  support  of  judicial  and  police  systems, 
which  would  be  rendered  quite  unnecessary  if  all 
men  lived  according  to  the  Golden  Rule.  But 
they  do  not ;  and  we  endure  the  taxation  rather 
than  suifer  the  injustice  which  anarchism  would 
permit.  No  one,  probably,  supposes  that  law  is  a 
specific  for  labor  troubles.  There  is  no  radical 
cure  for  labor  troubles  but  character  transformed 
and  conduct  controlled  by  Christian  principles. 
Meanwhile  the  application  of  law  is  a  device  to 
protect  the  innocent  from  the  injuries  inflicted 
upon  them  by  those  whose  character  and  conduct 
are  not  controlled  by  Christian  principles,  nor  even 


294       CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

by  those  of  Moses  or  Confucius,  but  by  the  deviFs 
maxim,  "  Every  man  for  himself." 

It  is  asked,  How  can  the  decisions  of  a  court  of 
justice  be  enforced  upon  the  contestants  in  a  labor 
controversy  ?  Labor  controversies  which  assume 
]proportions  sufficient  to  justify  public  interference 
are  generally  controversies  between  a  corporation 
and  a  labor  organization.  Enforcement  of  the 
law  against  the  corporation  is  a  ver}^  simple  mat- 
ter. If  a  railroad  corporation  does  not  pay  inter- 
est on  its  bonds  the  government  takes  the  railroad, 
manages  the  road  itself,  and  so  pays  the  interest 
on  the  bonds.  It  puts  the  railroad  into  the  hands 
of  a  receiver,  and  so  cares  for  the  interests  of  the 
creditors.  The  right  of  the  nation  in  the  highway 
is  greater  than  the  right  of  either  stockholder  or 
bondholder.  It  would  be  a  perfectly  simple  thing 
for  the  law  to  provide  that  when  the  corjjoration 
cannot  run  its  trains,  through  a  labor  war,  a  re- 
ceiver shall  take  the  road  and  manage  it. 

"  This  is  all  very  well,"  replies  the  objector,  "  as 
a  means  of  enforcing  the  decree  of  the  court  on 
the  corporation  ;  but  how  will  you  enforce  it  on 
the  laborer  ?  Will  you  require  him  to  work  for 
less  wages  or  during  more  hours  than  he  approves  ? 
To  do  this  is  to  establish  slavery."  No,  no  one  pro- 
poses to  establish  slavery,  or  to  compel  any  man  to 
work  under  any  other  compulsion  than  such  as  is 
involved  in  the  law,  "  If  a  man  will  not  work, 
neither  shall  he  eat."  And  no  other  compulsion 
would  be  required.      Whenever  the  law  provides 


SETTLEMENT   OF  LABOR    CONTROVERSIES.      295 

no  remedy  for  a  wrong,  the  wronged  take  the  law 
into  their  own  hands.  The  Law  makes  no  adequate 
provision  for  punishing  the  seducer.  The  husband 
or  friend,  therefore,  shoots  the  seducer  at  sight ; 
and  juries  habitually  acquit  in  such  cases,  not  be-, 
cause  the  avenger  is  insane,  but  because  the  law 
is  inefficient.  Now  the  American  workingman  is 
without  a  remedy  for  wrongs  which  he  thinks  ex- 
ist, and  which  an  increasing  number  of  disinter- 
ested spectators  also  think  exist.  He  strikes  be- 
cause the  law  furnishes  him  no  other  remedy  for 
real  or  fancied  injustice.  When,  as  in  England, 
by  the  consent  of  the  employers,  a  remedy  is  pro- 
vided, he  ceases  to  strike.  If,  without  the  consent 
of  the  employers,  a  remedy  was  provided  by  law, 
he  would  cease  to  strike.  And  if  he  did  not,  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  in  the  Debs  case  has  made  it  clear  that  a 
combination  of  employees  for  the  purpose  of  block- 
ing the  highways  of  the  nation  is  a  criminal  con- 
spiracy ;  and  it  would  not  be  a  difficult  matter  to 
frame  a  law  which  should  forbid  men  employed  on 
the  great  transportation  lines  to  leave  in  a  body 
without  adequate  notice,  provided  the  law  also  fur- 
nished them  some  other  remedy  for  wrong  than 
such  combination. 

Conciliation,  the  recognition  by  employer  and 
em23loyed  that  they  are  partners  in  a  common  en- 
terprise;  arbitration,  the  adjustment  of  all  ques- 
tions of  self-interest,  that  cannot  be  adjusted 
through  conciliation,  by  reference   to   a  mutually 


296       CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

chosen  tribunal ;  and  the  intervention  of  law  where 
public  rights  are  infringed  upon  by  controversy 
between  laborer  and  capitalist,  —  this  seems  to  me 
to  be  the  application  of  Christ's  method  for  the 
solution  of  the  labor  war,  until  we  come  to  the  full 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  workingman  and  capi- 
talist are  partners  in  a  common  enterprise,  and  the 
very  motive  of  war  ceases  to  exist. 


CHAPTER  XL 

CRIMINALS  :    THE  ENEMIES  OF   THE  SOCIAL  ORDER. 

In  establishing  a  new  social  order  upon  the 
earth,  —  an  order  of  righteousness,  peace,  and  hap- 
piness, —  Jesus  Christ  and  his  disciples  have  to 
meet  and  overcome,  not  only  ignorance,  prejudice, 
and  indifference,  but  open,  deliberate,  and  purpose- 
ful hostility.  That  measure  of  righteousness  which 
man  has  already  recognized  and  organized  in  human 
society  we  call  law ;  the  violation  of  such  law  is 
crime  ;  those  enemies  of  the  social  order  who  not 
merely  obstruct  the  development  of  society  toward 
its  ideal,  but  set  themselves  against  righteousness 
as  already  organized  in  institutions,  we  call  crimi- 
nals. There  is  in  every  community  a  considerable 
class  of  such  enemies  of  the  social  order.  Some 
are  so  simply  through  ignorance  or  bad  education ; 
some  through  inherited  vices ;  some  through  ad- 
verse social  influences.  For  the  wrong'-doiup;  of 
some,  society  is  responsible,  even  more  than  the  in- 
dividual wrong-doer.  Some  have  drifted  into  habits 
of  crime  gradually  and  unconsciously ;  some  have, 
of  set  purpose,  engaged  in  criminal  life,  —  have 
devoted  themselves  to  crime  as  men  devote  them- 
selves to  law,  medicine,  or  the  ministry.     The  sta- 


298      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

tistics  of  our  criminal  population  must  be  taken 
with  a  great  deal  of  allowance.  It  is  a  migratory 
population  ;  banished  from  one  State  or  from  one 
city,  the  criminal  flees  to  another.  Thus  the  same 
man  is  counted  in  the  statistical  reports  of  differ- 
ent institutions  and  even  of  different  States.  But 
it  has  been  estimated  that  the  criminal  population 
of  the  United  States,  including  in  that  term  not 
only  the  criminals  themselves,  but  those  who  are 
dependent  upon  them,  numbers  about  700,000  ; 
in  other  words,  that  about  one  in  every  seventy  of 
the  population  is  more  or  less  aggressively  and 
deliberately  an  enemy  of  the  social  order.  This 
criminal  class  is  increasing  more  rapidly  than 
population.     Says  Havelock  Ellis  :  ^  — 

"  The  level  of  criminality,  it  is  well  known,  is  rising, 
and  has  been  rising  during  the  whole  of  the  present 
century,  throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  France,  in 
Germany,  in  Italy,  in  Belgium,  in  Spain,  in  the  United 
States,  the  tide  of  criminality  is  becoming  higher 
steadily  and  rapidly.  In  France  it  has  risen  several 
hundred  per  cent. ;  so,  also,  for  several  kinds  of  serious 
crime,  in  many  parts  of  Germany  ;  in  Spain  the  num- 
ber of  persons  sent  to  perpetual  imprisonment  nearly 
doubled  between  1870  and  1883  ;  in  the  United  States, 
the  criminal  population  has  increased  since  the  war, 
relatively  to  the  population,  by  one  third.  .  .  .  Insular 
Great  Britain  alone  appears  to  be  relatively  unsub- 
merged  by  the  rising  tide  of  criminality  ;  but  even  here 

1  H.  Ellis,  The  Criminal,  p.  295. 


criminals:  enemies  of  social  order.    299 


there  is  a  real  increase,  in  proportion  to  the  population, 
in  the  more  serious  kinds  of  crime."  ^ 

How  ought  we  to  treat  these  enemies  of  the 
social  order? 

How  do  we  treat  them  ?  Chiefly  in  two  ways  : 
we  endeavor  to  get  rid  of  them,  or  we  endeavor  to 
inflict  vindictive  justice  upon  them.  Our  punitive 
system  alternates  between  these  two  methods,  and 
combines  both  in  differing  proportions. 

Sometimes  we  try  to  get  rid  of  them,  —  banish 
them  from  our  sight  and  from  our  memory.  The 
easiest  and  simplest  way  of  getting  rid  of  them  is 
to  kill  them.  In  England,  in  A.  D.  1600,  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  crimes  were  punished  with 
death.     At  the  close  of  the  last  century  over  two 

1  "  That  crime  is  on  the  increase,  ont  of  proportion  to  popula- 
tion, is  indicated  in  many  ways,  but  for  the  country  as  a  whole 
the  United  States  census  is  the  most  reliable  guide.  Let  ns  look 
at  it  by  decades  :  — 


Prisoners. 

Rates  of  Population. 

1850 

G,737 

1  out  of  3,442 

1860 

19,086 

1   "    "  1,647 

1870 

32,901 

1   "    "  1,171 

1880 

58,609 

1    "    "      855 

1890 

82,329 

1    "    "      757 

The  rate  of  increase  in  a  few  States,  we  are  glad  to  note,  has 
not  been  maintained,  and,  in  one  or  two,  for  the  higher  crimes, 
it  has  even  decreased  a  trifle  ;  but,  upon  the  whole,  the  swell  has 
been  continuous,  like  a  tide  that  has  no  ebb."  General  Brinker- 
hoff,  Address  before  National  Prison  Association,  1894,  p.  13. 
Compare  "  The  Increase  of  Crime  and  Positivist  Criminology," 
The  Forum,  vol.  x^ai.  1894,  p.  666. 


300      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

hundred  were  so  punished.  It  is  said  that  in 
Henry  the  Eighth's  reign  seventy-two  thousand 
criminals  were  hanged  ;  ^  and,  although  the  figures 
are  doubtless  inexact,  it  is  certain  that  they  truly 
represent  the  method  of  dealing  with  criminals  in 
that  ao'e.  Women  and  children  were  executed  as 
readily  as  men.  It  is  not  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury since  a  child  of  nine  was  condemned  to  death 
in  England  for  stealing  paint  of  the  value  of  two 
pence  half-penny,^  although  he  was  not  executed. 
Human  sensibility  has  been  cultivated,  and  the 
estimate  of  the  value  of  human  life  increased, 
within  the  last  century,  and  we  are  no  longer  able 
to  adopt  the  short  and  easy  method  of  extirpating- 
crime  by  extirpating  the  criminal.  But  the  spirit 
remains.  In  France  the  criminal  is  sentenced  to 
the  chain  gang,  in  Russia  he  is  exiled  to  Siberia. 
The  inhumanity  of  the  one,  Victor  Hugo  has 
graphically  illustrated  in  "  Les  Miserables ;  "  the 
inhumanity  of  the  other,  recent  revelations  of 
George  Kennan  have  brought  to  the  consciousness 
of  all  Christendom.  Within  a  very  few  years  it 
has  been  seriously  proposed  to  establish  a  penal 
colony  in  Alaska  to  which  criminals  might  be 
sentenced.  It  may  perhaps  be  here  assumed  that 
neither  chain  gang  nor  penal  colony  will  ever  find 

1  Carroll  D.  Wright,  in  Annual  Am.  Acad.  Pol.  Sci.,  vol.  iii. 
p.  767  (May,  1893).  See  J.  Birchall,  England  under  the  Tudor s, 
p.  348  ;  Pictorial  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  907.  Froude,  His- 
tory of  England,  iii.  373,  374,  note  2,  discredits  the  statement. 

2  See  Henry  Lea,  History  of  the  Inquisition,  i.  p.  235. 


CHIMIN ALi^:    ENEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.      301 

a  place  in  American  criminal  jurisprudence,  but  to 
banish  and  forget  the  criminal  is  still  our  practical 
method,  if  not  our  deliberate  aim.  For  a  petty 
offense,  we  send  the  offender  to  a  county  jail ;  for 
a  graver  offense,  to  a  State's  prison.  In  either 
case  our  real  object  is  to  get  rid  of  the  offender  as 
an  inconvenient  and  disagreeable  member  of  so- 
ciety, and  go  on  with  our  business  of  money-mak- 
ing. In  the  State's  prison  little  or  nothing  is  done 
for  his  reformation.  We  congratulate  ourselves  if, 
out  of  his  industry,  we  can  make  money  enough  to 
provide  for  his  self-support.  In  the  county  jail 
much  is  done  for  his  deterioration.  The  convict 
comes  out  of  the  prison  no  better  than  he  went  in ; 
he  comes  out  of  the  jail  a  great  deal  worse.  The 
former  is  not  a  school  of  virtue,  the  latter  is  a 
school  of  crime. 

"  To  establish  a  school  of  crime,"  says  General  Brink- 
erhoff,^  "  requires  (1)  teachers  skilled  in  the  theory 
and  practice  of  crime ;  (2)  pupils  with  inclination,  op- 
portunity, and  leisure  to  learn  ;  (3)  a  place  of  meet- 
ing together.  All  these  requirements  are  provided  and 
paid  for  by  the  public  in  the  erection,  organization, 
and  equipment  of  county  jails  and  city  prisons.  With 
less  than  half  a  dozen  exceptions,  all  the  jails  and  city 
prisons  in  the  United  States  are  schools  of  this  kind, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  a  more  efficient  sys- 
tem for  the  education  of  criminals  could  be  devised. 
.  .  .  Every  observant  jailor  knows  with  what   devilish 

^  In  an  article  in  The  Congregationalist,  winter  of  1884.  My 
notes  do  not  give  me  the  exact  date, 


302      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

skill  the  professors  of  this  school  ply  their  vocation. 
Hour  after  hour  they  beguile  the  weariness  of  enforced 
confinement  with  marvelous  tales  of  successful  crime, 
and  the  methods  by  whicli  escape  has  been  accom- 
plished. If  attention  fails,  games  of  chance,  inter- 
spersed with  obscene  jokes  and  ribald  songs,  serve  to 
amuse  and  while  away  the  time.  In  this  way  the  usual 
atmosphere  of  a  jail  is  made  so  foul  that  the  stamina 
of  a  saint  are  scarce  strong  enough  to  resist.  Let  a 
prisoner  attempt  to  be  decent,  and  to  resist  the  contami- 
nating influences  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  especially 
in  a  large  jail,  and  he  will  fhid  that,  so  far  as  personal 
comfort  is  concerned,  he  might  as  well  be  in  a  den  of 
wild  beasts." 

This  description,  written  some  twelve  years  ago, 
is  substantially  as  true  to-day  as  then.  Gen- 
eral Brinkerlioff  himself  has  demonstrated  that 
cleanly  and  well-ordered  jails  are  not  only  practi- 
cable, but  may  be  economical ;  and,  thanks  to  his 
efforts,  the  exceptions  are  perhaps  more  numerous 
than  when  he  wrote :  but  it  is  still  true  that  the 
county  jail  "  is  everywhere  known  as  the  training- 
school  for  crime,  the  principal  recruiting  station 
for  the  penitentiary ; "  jails  are  still  "  schools  of 
crime,  disseminators  of  evil."  The  comparatively 
innocent  boy,  carried  into  some  violation  of  law 
by  the  recklessness,  the  ignorance,  or  the  incon- 
siderateness  of  youth,  or  by  the  influence  of  evil 
companions,  comes  out  of  jail  educated  in  the 
ways  of  crime,  and  instigated  to  walk  therein 
by  the  associates  which  the  county  has  furnished 


CRIMINALS  :    ENEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.      o03 

him  ;  all  that  sense  of  shame  with  which  he  en- 
tered is  obliterated ;  an  ineffaceable  stigma  fas- 
tened upon  him  shuts  him  off  from  all  reform- 
atory influences  ;  and  not  improbably  he  has 
formed  a  deliberate  purpose  to  pursue  in  the  future 
the  criminal  career  which,  before  his  imprison- 
ment, was  far  from  his  thought,  if  not  abhorrent 
to  his  sensibilities.^  Such  is  the  effect  of  the 
policy  of  banishing  the  criminal  from  sight  and 
mind.  It  converts  criminal  impulse  into  criminal 
purpose,  and  increases  the  class  which  it  should 
be  an  object  to  diminish. 

The  second  method  of  dealing  with  criminals 
is  that  of  vindictive  justice.  The  man  who  has 
done  wrong  —  such  is  the  argument  —  ought  to 
suffer  for  his  wrong-doing.  This  suffering  it  is 
the  duty  of  society  to  inflict.  By  inflicting  this 
suffering  we  satisfy  the  retributive  sense  of  jus- 
tice in  the  community ;  we  deter  both  the  crimi- 
nal and  others  of  his  class  from  like  crimes  in 
the  future ;  and  thus  we  protect  society  from  the 
aggression  of  its  enemies.  This  theory  of  the 
treatment  of  criminals  proposes,  as  the  motive- 
power  for  action,  the  wrath  of  society  against 
crime ;  as  the  end  of  its  action,  the  protection  of 
society ;  as  the  means  to  be  employed,  the  deter- 

1  See  the  paper  on  "  County  Jails  as  Reformatory  Institutions," 
by  Edward  B.  Merrill,  in  the  Forty-Ninth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Prisoners'  Association  of  New  York  for  the  year  1893,  and  the 
address  by  ex-President  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  in  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Annual  Congress  of  the  National  Prison  Association 
of  the  United  States,  held  at  Boston,  July,  1888. 


304      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

rent  power  of  fear.  ''  I  think  it  highly  desir- 
able," says  Sir  James  Stephen,  "  that  criminals 
shonld  be  hated ;  that  the  punishment  inflicted 
upon  them  should  be  so  contrived  as  to  give 
expression  to  that  hatred,  and  to  justify  it,  so  far 
as  the  public  provision  of  means  for  expressing 
and  gratifying  a  natural  healthy  sentiment  can 
justify  and  encourage  it."  ^  This  was  the  spirit 
and  this  the  method  of  society  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  is  often,  but  erroneously,  supposed  that 
religious  persecution  was  peculiarly  cruel.  The 
cruelty  belonged,  not  to  the  Church,  but  to  the 
age  ;  it  belonged  to  this  theory  of  retributive  jus- 
tice, seeking  the  protection  of  society  by  the  deter- 
rent power  of  fear.  Heresy  was  considered  as  the 
greatest  of  crimes,  because  a  crime  against  God ; 
but  it  was  punished  in  no  different  spirit,  for  no 
different  end,  and  by  no  different  method,  than 
characterized  the  punishment  of  civil  offenses. 
Says  Mr.  Henry  Lea :  ^  "  The  wheel,  the  caldron 
of  boiling  oil,  burning  alive,  burying  alive,  flaying 
alive,  tearing  aj^art  with  wild  horses,  were  the 
ordinary  expedients  by  which  the  criminal  jurist 
sought  to  deter  crime  by  frightful  examples  which 
would  make  a  profound  imj^ression  on  a  not 
over-sensitive  population.  An  Anglo-Saxon  law 
punishes  a  female  slave  convicted  of  theft  by  mak- 
ing eighty  other  female   slaves   each  bring  three 

^  Sir  James  Stephen,  History  of  Criminal  Law,  vol.  ii.  eh.  xvii. 
p.  82. 

2  Henry  Lea,  History  of  the  ly^quisition,  i.  p.  284  f. 


CRIMINALS  :    ENEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.     305 

pieces  of  wood  and  burn  her  to  death,  while 
each  contributes  a  fine  besides.  The  Carolina, 
or  criminal  code  of  Charles  V.,  issued  in  1530, 
is  a  hideous  catalogue  of  blinding,  mutilation, 
tearing  with  hot  pincers,  burning  alive,  and  break- 
ing on  the  wheel.  In  England,  prisoners  were 
boiled  to  death  even  as  lately  as  1542,  as  in  the 
cases  of  Rouse  and  Margaret  Davie." 

I  believe  this  vindictive  system  is  entirely,  radi- 
cally, and  irretrievably  wrong,  —  wrong  in  its 
spirit,  wrong  in  its  purpose,  wrong  in  its  methods. 
It  cannot  be  reformed ;  it  must  be  destroyed,  root 
and  branch,  and  a  new  and  redemptive  system 
substituted  in  its  place,  different  in  its  spirit,  dif- 
erent  in  its  purpose,  different  in  its  methods. 
The  very  phrase  "  administration  of  justice "  is 
a  mis-phrase.  It  is  not  the  function  of  society 
to  administer  justice ;  it  has  neither  the  authority 
nor  the  capacity  so  to  do.  Jesus  Christ  is  per- 
fectly explicit  in  condemning  the  system  of  retri- 
butive justice,  its  spirit,  its  method,  its  means. 

The  criminal  is  the  enemy  of  society.  He  is 
the  enemy  of  the  homes  which  constitute  the  foun- 
dation of  society ;  the  enemy  of  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty and  of  person,  without  which  the  social 
organism  cannot  be  maintained ;  the  enemy  of 
the  individuals  who  compose  the  social  organism, 
and  whose  prosperity  and  life  constitute  the  pros- 
perity and  life  of  the  organism.  How  we  are  to 
feel  toward  our  enemies,  and  how  we  are  to  treat 
them,    Christ   has    told    us    in    explicit   language. 


306      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor,  and  hate  thine  enemy. 
But  I  say  unto  you.  Love  your  enemies,  bless 
them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate 
you,  and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you 
and  persecute  you."  ^  If  I  may  not  hate  the  man 
who  robs  me,  neither  may  society  hate  the  men 
who  rob  society.  If  one  man  may  not  do  evil  to 
one  man  who  has  done  evil  to  him,  a  hundred 
thousand  men,  constituting  a  community,  may  not 
do  evil  to  a  hundred  men  who  have  done  evil  to 
that  community.  The  spirit  which  is  wrong  in 
a  single  soul  is  not  made  right  by  being  diffused 
through  a  hundred  thousand  souls.  Hate  thine 
enemy,  says  Sir  James  Stephen ;  love  thine  en- 
emy, says  Christ.  Administer  justice,  says  society. 
"  Do  not  administer  justice,"  says  Paul.^  Over- 
come evil  by  the  deterrent  power  of  fear,  says  the 
law ;  overcome  evil  by  good,  by  the  inspiration  of 
love  and  hope,  says  the  New  Testament.  It  is  im- 
possible to  harmonize  the  two  systems ;  if  one  is 
right,  the  other  is  radically  wrong.  The  redemp- 
tive system  may  mitigate  the  evils  of  the  vindic- 
tive system,  but  cannot  be  combined  with  it.  We 
must  choose  between  vindictive  justice  and  redemp- 
tive love.     It  is  true  that  there  is  an  instinct  of 


1  Matt.  V.  43,  44. 

2  Compare  Romans  xii.  17-21 :  "  Do  not  give  back  evil  for  evil. 
.  .  .  Beloved,  do  not  yourselves  administer  justice  ;  it  is  written, 
I  will  administer  justice,  saith  Jehovah."  See  the  original  Greek, 
which  I  literally  follow  in  this  translation. 


CRIMINALS:    ENEMIES    OF  SOCIAL    ORDER.     307 

retributive  justice.  We  rightly  feel  that  wrong 
action  deserves  penalty.  If  there  were  no  such 
feeling,  there  could  be  no  reformatory  discipline. 
The  father  could  not  punish  his  child;  society 
could  not  punish  the  criminal.  But  punishment 
is  not  to  be  the  mere  expression  of  that  feeling, 
nor  to  be  administered  for  the  purpose  of  satisfy- 
ing it.  Instincts  are  never  ends.  The  appetite 
is  essential  to  life,  but  we  are  not  to  eat  merely  to 
gratify  our  appetite.  We  are  rational  beings,  and 
are  to  understand  the  object  of  the  apj^etite,  and 
are  to  guide  and  control  it  to  the  fulfillment  of  its 
divine  end.  The  difference  between  a  beast  and 
a  man  is  that  one  eats  simply  to  gratify  his  appe- 
tite, the  other  controls  his  appetite  to  minister  to 
his  life ;  that  the  one  inflicts  injury  simply  to 
gratify  his  instinct  for  revenge,  the  other  guides 
and  controls  that  instinct  to  the  accomplishment 
of  a  nobler  purpose.  That  purpose  is  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  wrong-doer,  not  the  infliction  of  retri- 
butive justice  upon  him. 

The  authority  to  inflict  such  justice  is  not  con- 
ferred upon  us,  —  is,  indeed,  emphatically  denied 
to  us  by  Christ  himself.  "Judge  not,"  he  says. 
Judgment  belongs  only  to  Him  who  sees  the  mo- 
tives, and  therefore  knows  how  to  make  adjust- 
ment of  reward  and  penalty  to  virtue  and  to  sin. 
To  assume  the  seat  of  judgment  is  to  assume  a 
function  which  belongs  only  to  the  All-seeing  One. 
Christ's  prohibition  is  enforced  by  our  own  limita- 
tions.    We  have  not  the  capacity  to  exercise  this 


308      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

function.  "  Prisoner  at  the  bar,  stand  up  and  re- 
ceive the  sentence  which  the  law  pronounces  against 
you."  What  judge  will  claim  the  knowledge  ade- 
quate to  enable  him  to  make  this  sentence  just? 
Do  you  know,  Mr.  Justice,  what  character  this 
man  inherited  from  his  ancestors  ?  —  what  were 
the  elements  of  his  education  ?  what  was  the 
moral  atmosphere  of  his  early  life  ?  what  were 
the  temptations  which  environed  him  ?  what 
mixed  motives  of  good  and  evil  led  him  to  the 
deed  ?  Do  you  really  know  which  of  you  two  is 
in  inmost  character  the  better  man  ?  No  !  every 
judge  confesses  his  inability.  The  greater  his  ex- 
perience, the  profounder  his  consciousness  of  that 
inability.  "  When  Pantagruel  arrived  at  Myre- 
lingues,  he  found  that  Judge  Brydoyo,  after  care- 
fully considering  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  was 
accustomed  to  decide  it  by  means  of  dice,  and  Pan- 
tagruel fully  admitted  the  impartiality  of  this 
method.  If  our  judges,  before  pronouncing  sen- 
tence, were  first  to  determine  the  years  to  be 
awarded  by  the  solemn  casting  of  dice,  the  result 
might  be  as  good  as  those  reached  by  the  not  very 
dissimilar  system  now  adopted."  ^  Who  was  the 
greater  criminal,  —  the  child  of  nine  years  old  sen- 
tenced to  death  for  stealing  twopence  half-penny 
worth  of  paint,  or  the  judge  who  sentenced  him  ? 
Probably  greater  criminal  than  either  was  the  so- 
ciety which  made  such  a  sentence  of  such  a  child 
for  such   an  offense   possible.     I  have  heard  the 

^   H.  Ellis.  The  Criminal  p.  256. 


criminals:  enemies  of  social  order.    309 

story  told  in  one  of  the  Prison  Reform  Congresses 
of  two  men  cauglit  in  a  burglary.  One,  a  young 
man,  beguiled  into  the  crime  by  liis  older  asso- 
ciates, thoroughly  ashamed  of  himself,  eager  to 
receive  his  sentence  and  pay  his  penalty  and  be- 
gin his  life  anew,  came  before  a  severe  judge, 
pleaded  guilty,  and  was  sentenced  to  twenty  years. 
The  old  offender,  too  wise  to  be  so  cauglit,  secured 
postponement  of  his  case,  got  before  a  milder  jus- 
tice, and  received  a  sentence  of  three  or  four  years. 
A  few  years  ago  I  read  in  the  same  paper  of  two 
sentences  in  England,  one  of  a  youth  sentenced 
to  seven  years'  imprisonment  for  stealing  a  butter- 
knife,  one  of  a  drunken  brute  sentenced  to  three 
months'  imprisonment  for  gouging  out  his  wife's 
eye  !  These  discrepancies  are  continually  taking 
place  in  what  we  euphemistically  call  the  "  admin- 
istration of  justice."  Indeed,  the  defenders  of  this 
system  frankly  concede  that  it  is  impossible  to 
measure  the  real  guilt  of  the  act  punished ;  only 
the  overt  act,  only  its  effect  on  society,  can  be  mea- 
sured.^ But  to  punish  a  man,  not  for  the  wrong 
of  which  he  is  guilty,  but  for  the  harm  which  he 
has  done,  is  not  to  exercise  retributive  justice.  Jus- 
tice adjusts  the  penalty  to  the  sin  ;  such  a  system 
adjusts  the  penalty  to  the  injury ;  and  the  differ- 
ence between  these  two  systems  is  the  difference 
between  justice  and  revenge.     What  we  call  the 

1  The  Philosophy  of  Crime  and  Punishment  :  Address  before 
the  National  Prison  Association  of  the  United  States,  September, 
1890,  by  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris,  p.  5. 


310      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

administration  of  justice  is  the  administration  of 
social  revenge,  mitigated  by  varying  degrees  of  hu- 
manity and  mercy. 

As  this  system  is  radically  wrong  in  the  spirit 
which  animates  it,  so  it  is  radically  wrong  in  the 
purpose  which  it  endeavors  to  accomplish.  The 
object  of  punishment  is  not  the  protection  of  so- 
ciety from  the  criminal  classes.  This  is  a  purely 
selfish  purpose,  and  a  purely  selfish  purpose  is 
never  beneficent  and  rarely  accomplishes  its  end. 
We  do  not  protect  society  by  endeavoring  to  pro- 
tect society.  Killing  criminals,  punishing  crimi- 
nals, shutting  criminals  up  in  prison,  frightening 
criminals,  have  all  been  tried  and  have  all  proved 
failures.  The  notion  that  the  end  of  punishment 
is  the  protection  of  society  from  the  criminal 
classes  assumes  that  there  always  are  to  be  crimi- 
nal classes  from  which  we  are  to  protect  ourselves. 
Not  far  from  my  home  in  the  West,  thirty  odd 
years  ago,  there  had  been  what  was  known  as  Lost 
Creek.  This  creek  emptied  itself  over  the  prairie, 
making  a  great  marsh,  and  so  long  as  the  marsh 
remained  the  whole  neighborhood  was  infested 
with  malaria  and  typhoid  fevers.  It  finally  oc- 
curred to  some  wise  men  to  drain  the  swamp.  The 
creek  was  drained  into  the  Wabash  River,  and  the 
disease  ceased.  The  object  of  our  punitive  system 
should  be,  not  to  protect  society  from  the  criminal 
classes,  but  to  drain  the  swamp ;  to  stop  the  mul- 
tiplication of  criminals ;  to  reform  the  criminals 
created  by  our  bad  social  system,  and  to  protect 


criminals:  enemies  of  social  order.    311 

ourselves  only  from  tlie  small  remnant  which  is 
then  left. 

And  the  deterrent  power  of  fear  is  not  the 
proper  means  for  accomplishing  the  ends  of  pun- 
ishment. We  have  broken  criminals  on  the  wheel, 
boiled  and  buried  them  alive,  flayetl  thein,  hanged 
them,  imprisoned  them,  and  still  the  criminal 
classes  grow  more  rapidly  than  population  grows. 
We  have  invited  the  public  to  witness  these  hor- 
rible sights ;  the  boys  have  jeered  at  the  offenders 
in  the  stocks ;  the  roughs  have  gathered  from  the 
purlieus  of  the  city  to  glorify  the  criminal  expi- 
ating his  crime  upon  the  scaffold  ;  and  both  have 
gone  from  the  scene  with  their  sensibilities  hard- 
ened, their  vicious  tendencies  intensified,  incited  to 
crime,  not  deterred  from  it.  We  have  at  last  be- 
come practically  satisfied  that  this  is  true,  and  no 
longer  administer  penalties  in  public.  The  pillory 
is  abolished,  the  Delaware  whipping-post  is  set  up 
in  the  prison  yard,  the  public  are  excluded  from 
the  executions.  Even  in  our  school-rooms  the  boy 
is  no  lonofer  floo^o'ed  before  all  the  scholars.  Pub- 
lie  penalty  does  not  deter ;  it  does  not  decrease 
crime :  it  instigates,  duplicates,  multiplies  crime. 

Our  penal  systems  should  be  animated  by  a 
different  spirit ;  they  should  seek  a  different  end  : 
they  should  employ  a  different  means.  The  spirit 
should  be  that  of  love ;  the  object  should  be  the  re- 
formation of  the  offender  ;  and  while  fear  must  some- 
times be  employed,  it  will  be  subsidiary  to  the 
higher  and  more  potent  motives  of  hope  and  love. 


312      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

In  brief,  we  are  to  bring  to  the  problem,  How 
shall  we  deal  with  our  criminal  population?  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ :  we  are  to  seek  his  ends  and 
we  are  to  employ  his  methods.  His  spirit  was  that 
of  love ;  his  end  was  the  cure  of  the  wrong-doer ; 
bis  method  was  the  inspiration  of  worthy  aspira- 
tions and  righteous  purposes  in  the  wrong-doer's 
breast. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  Christ  treats  sin 
as  a  moral  disease  which  he  has  come  to  cure. 
"  They  that  be  whole,"  he  says,  "  need  not  a  phy- 
sician, but  they  that  are  sick."  ^  It  ought  never 
to  be  forgotten,  as  it  sometimes  has  been,  that  he 
immediately  adds,  thus  interpreting  the  figure,  "  I 
am  not  come  to  call  the  righteous  but  sinners  to 
repentance."  He  recognizes  the  reality  and  terri- 
bleness  of  sin ;  he  treats  it  as  something  which 
separates  the  soul  from  God  and  calls  for  repent- 
ance, and,  if  unrepented  of,  issues  in  death.  But 
the  sinner  is  the  object  of  his  pity,  not  of  his 
wrath.  He  warns,  but  never  threatens.  Even 
his  invective  against  the  Pharisees,  perhaps  tlie 
most  terrible  invective  in  literature,  ends  in  a  la- 
ment :  "  O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often  would 
I  have  gathered  thee  together  as  a  hen  gathereth 
her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  " 
He  never  punishes ;  he  never  exults  in  prospective 
punishment.  His  ministry  is  not  punitive  ;  it  is 
therapeutic. 

It  is  true  that  there  is  a  difference  between  sin 
1  Matt.  ix.  12,  13. 


CRrMINALS:    ENEMIES    OF  SOCIAL    ORDER.     313 

and  crime  ;  but  this  difference  enforces  upon  us 
the  truth  that  we  should  deal  with  crime  as  the 
Master  dealt  with  sin.  Sin  is  the  violation  of 
God's  law ;  crime  is  the  violation  of  man's  law. 
The  crime  may  not  be  a  sin  ;  it  may  even  be  a 
virtue.  Daniel's  refusal  to  worshijD  the  image  set 
up  on  Babylon's  plain  was  a  crime,  but  it  was  not 
a  sin.  To  give  aid  to  a  fugitive  slave  in  1850  was 
a  crime  ;  to  refuse  him  aid  was  a  sin.  But  crimes 
are  not  worse  than  sins ;  all  that  is  evil  in  the 
crime  is  the  sin.  Philosophically,  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  crime  and  sin  should  be  treated  in  a 
different  spirit,  on  a  different  princij^le,  or  by 
different  methods.  Christ's  philosophy  of  sin  as  a 
disease  is  now  recognized  and  adopted  by  the  scien- 
tific students  of  criminology  as  the  true  philosophy 
of  crime.  The  cranial  and  cerebral  characteristics 
of  the  criminal  classes  set  them  apart  by  them- 
selves. They  are  physiologically  and  phrenologi- 
cally  different  from  their  fellows.  "  Forty  per 
cent,  of  all  the  convicts  are  invalids  more  or  less, 
and  that  percentage  is  largely  increased  in  the 
professional  thief  class,"  ^  says  Dr.  G.  Wilson. 
Semi-imbecility  is  a  prevalent  characteristic  among 
juvenile  criminals.  Expert  students  in  this  branch 
of  the  subject  discover  characteristic  criminal  fea- 
tures in  receding  foreheads,  the  size  of  the  lower 
jaw,  the  large  development  of  the  external  ear,  the 
shape  of  the  nose,  the  number  and  nature  of  the 
wrinkles,  anomalies  of  the  hair,  characteristics  of 
1  Quoted  by  H.  Eliis  in  The  Criminal,  p.  34. 


314      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

the  eyes.  "  A  handsome  face,"  says  Havelock 
Ellis,  "is  a  thing  rarely  seen  in  a  prison,  and 
never  in  a  prisoner  who  has  been  a  law-breaker 
from  childhood."  ^  If  it  is  difficult  to  draw  the 
line  between  the  physical  and  the  moral,  it  is 
impossible  to  draw  such  a  line  between  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  moral.  The  law  endeavors  in  vain 
to  define  accurately  the  distinction  between  moral 
and  intellectual  insanity.  Few  criminals  are  really 
intelligent ;  a  large  j^roportion  of  them  are  stupid. 
Where  there  is  intelligence  it  is  generally  confined 
within  a  very  narrow  scope.  "  It  is  a  mistake," 
says  Dr.  Wey,  of  Elmira,  "  to  suppose  that  the 
criminal  is  naturally  bright.  If  bright,  it  is  usu- 
ally in  a  narrow  line,  and  self-repeating.  Like 
the  cunning  of  the  fox,  his  smartness  generally 
displays  itself  in  furthering  his  schemes  of  per- 
sonal gratification  and  comfort."  ^  Often  the  career 
of  crime  is  due  to  excessive  vanity,  emotional  in- 
stability, or  a  passion  absolutely  inexplicable  and 
inscrutable ;  sometimes  the  criminal  presents  the 
appearance  of  being  under  the  control  of  some 
superior  power.  One  of  the  great  French  alienists 
is  of  opinion  that  demoniacal  possession  is  the  best 
explanation  to-day  of  certain  forms  of  otherwise 
inexplicable  crime.^     But  the  commonest  cause  of 

^  H.  Ellis,  The  Criminal,  p.  80.  Chapters  iii.  and  iv.  of  this 
volume  may  be  studied  to  advantage  by  the  general  reader.  Tliey 
establish  beyond  all  question  the  fact  that  habitual  criminality  is 
closely  connected  with  malformation. 

2  Idem., -p.  134. 

*  See  my  chapter  on  demoniacal  possession  in  Life  of  Christy 


CRIMINALS  :    ENEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.     315 

all  is  a  weak  will ;  an  apparent  inability  to  persist 
in  continuous  work  against  obstacles  or  discour- 
agements, or  to  resist  the  evil  influences  exerted 
by  a  stronger  nature.  In  any  scientific  study  of 
this  subject,  the  student  must  further  remember 
the  early  influences  to  which  the  criminal  has  been 
subjected.  Fifty  per  cent,  of  the  inmates  of  the 
Elmira  Reformatory  have  either  grown  up  with- 
out any  home,  or  in  homes  that  were  as  bad  as 
none.  There  are  no  adequate  statistics  to  indi- 
cate how  large  a  proportion  of  criminals  have 
grown  up  in  vitiated  physical  surroundings,  with 
bad  food  and  bad  air  accentuating  and  intensify- 
ing evil  qualities  inherited  from  criminal  ances- 
tors. In  1888,  4,800,472  lodgings  were  furnished 
to  homeless  men  and  women  in  cheap  lodging- 
houses  and  in  the  station-houses  of  New  York 
city.  With  few  exceptions,  these  lodging-houses 
breed  vice  and  crime.  "  It  is  undeniable,"  says 
Superintendent  Byrnes,  "  that  the   lodging-houses 

ch.  xiii.  p.  168.  Esquirol  is  the  French  alienist  referred  to.  "  In 
the  course  of  an  interesting  conversation  which  the  writer  had  with 
the  late  Dr.  Forbes  Winslow,  the  latter  expressed  his  conviction 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  patients  in  our  lunatic  asylums  are 
cases  of  possession,  and  not  of  madness.  He  distinguished  the 
demoniac  hy  a  strange  duality,  and  by  the  fact  that,  when  tem- 
porarily released  from  the  oppression  of  the  demon,  he  is  often 
able  to  describe  the  force  which  seizes  upon  his  limbs,  and  com- 
pels him  to  acts  or  words  of  shame  against  his  will."  G.  H. 
Peraber,  Earth's  Earliest  Ages,  Am.  ed.,  Armstrong,  1885,  p.  261. 
See,  also,  an  interesting  and  suggestive  treatment  of  the  subject  in 
Demon  Possession  and  Allied  Themes,  by  John  L.  Nevins,  D.  D., 
for  forty  years  a  missionary  in  China.  Fleming  &  Revell  Co. 
1894. 


316      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  the  city  have  a  powerful  tendency  to  produce, 
foster,  and  increase  crime.  ...  In  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  —  I  am  quite  confident  this  proportion  is 
not  too  large  —  he  (the  stranger  who  drifts  into 
such  a  lodging-house)  turns  out  a  thief  or  a 
burglar,  if,  indeed,  he  does  not  sooner  or  later 
become  a  murderer.  Thousands  of  instances  of 
this  kind  occur  every  year,"  ^ 

Let  it  be  granted  that  a  certain  proportion  of 
criminals  deliberately  choose  a  criminal  career, 
because  they  erroneously  suppose  that  it  is  easier 
to  steal  money  than  to  earn  it ;  and  that  the  only 
way  to  protect  society  against  them  is  to  prove  to 
them  by  practical  experience  that  stealing  does 
not  pay.  Is  it  not  evidently  unphilosophical  and 
unscientific  to  base  our  whole  punitive  system 
upon  the  false  assumption  that  the  majority  of 
criminals  are  of  this  description  ?  There  is  a  prac- 
tically uniform  testimony  by  students  of  this  sub- 
ject that  the  majority  of  criminals  fall  into  crime 
through  either  inheritance,  evil  education,  evil 
companionship,  or  an  abnormal  physical  and  in- 
tellectual as  well  as  moral  organization.  Disease 
of  body,  of  intellect,  of  emotions  of  will,  disease 
inherited  through  successive  generations  and  ag- 
gravated by  vicious  social  conditions,  all  combine 
to  make  the  criminal  class  what  it  is.  Humanity 
as  well  as  wisdom  indicates  the  duty  of  society,  — 
first,  to  remove  as  far  as  possible  the  causes  which 

^  Address  by  the  Rev.   Henry   L.  Myrick  on  "  The  Study  of 
Crime,"  1893,  American  Institute  of  Civics. 


CRIMINALS:    ENEMIEU    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.      317 

tend  to  generate  criminals,  and,  secondly,  to  set  in 
operation  as  vigorously  as  possible  causes  which 
will  tend  to  cure  them,^  —  to  give  them  saner 
emotions,  a  better  intelligence,  a  stronger  will; 
to  counteract  the  influences  of  bad  heredity  and 
bad  environment ;  to  develop  habits  of  virtue  and 
industry,  at  first  under  coercion,  but  as  rapidly  as 
possible  under  the  inspiration  of  self-respect,  am- 
bition, and  hope. 

Since  he  who  advocates  substituting  a  remedial 
for  a  punitive  system  is  constantly  charged  with 
sentimentalism,  with  proposing  to  cure  crime  by 
"cakes  and  ale,"  it  is  perhaps  necessary  to  stop 
for  a  moment  to  disavow  this  charge.  Sentiment- 
alism is  not  curative.  There  is  nothing  remedial 
in  sending  the  criminal  baskets  of  flowers.  ''  It 
is  well  known,"  says  Havelock  Ellis,  "  that  when 
a  woman  has  murdered  her  husband,  it  is  by  no 
means  unusual  for  a  number  of  letters  to  be  sent 
to  her,  before  the  issue  of  the  trial  is  known,  con- 
taining offers  of  marriage."  ^  Such  morbid  ro- 
mancing as  this  is  the  farthest  possible  remove 
from  the  spirit  of  Christ,  who  never  put  a  halo 
of  romance  around  the  wrong-doer ;  he  pardoned 
guilt,  but  never  palliated  it.  The  compassion 
which  is  to  deal  with  criminals  must  be  strong 
before  it  is  tender.     He  who  is  oblivious  of  moral 

^  See  an  address  by  Carroll  D.  Wrig-ht  on  "  The  Relation  of 
Economic  Conditions  to  the  Causes  of  Crime,"  Report  of  National 
Prison  Association,  1892,  especially  p.  140. 

2  H.  Ellis,  The  Criminal,  pp.  286,  287. 


318      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

distinctions  can  never  create  in  the  criminal  the 
conscience  which  perceives  them.  Punishment 
there  must  be,  and  sometimes  severe  punishment ; 
but  the  spirit  which  administers  it  must  be,  not 
the  spirit  of  revenge,  euphemistically  called  retri- 
butive justice,  but  the  spirit  of  love  seeking  re- 
demption. It  must  be  exactly  the  opposite  of  the 
spirit  which  Carlyle  represents  in  his  ''  Essay  on 
Model  Prisons."  ^  Against  the  creed  of  Carlyle  I 
put  the  affirmation  that  fear  never  cured  stuj^idity. 
On  the  contrary,  its  tendency  always  is  to  stupefy ; 
its  only  value  is  to  restrain  temporarily  the  wrong- 
doer until  other  and  higher  motives  can  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  him. 

The  spirit  which  is  to  animate  the  punitive 
system  has  been  well  expressed  in  a  sentence  by 
the  question  once  asked  at  a  prison  reform  con- 
gress, "  Would  not  Jesus  Christ  have  made  a 
superb  prison  warden?"  It  will  seek  for  its 
object,   not  to  protect  society  from  criminals,  not 

1  "  To  drill  twelve  hundred  scoundrels  by  the  '  method  of 
kindness,'  and  of  abolishing-  your  very  tread-wheel,  —  how  eould 
any  commander  rejoice  to  have  such  a  work  cut  out  for  him  '? 
You  had  but  to  look  in  the  faces  of  these  twelve  hundred  and 
despair,  for  the  most  part,  of  ever  '  commanding' '  them  at  all. 
Miserable,  distorted  blockheads,  the  g-enerality ;  ape-faces,  imp- 
faces,  angry  dog--faces,  heavy,  sullen  ox-faces ;  degraded  under- 
foot, perverse  creatures ;  sons  of  indocility  ;  g-reedy,  mutinous 
darkness,  and,  in  one  word,  of  stupidity,  which  is  the  g^eneral 
mother  of  such.  .  .  .  These  abject,  ape,  wolf,  ox,  imp,  and  other 
diabolic-animal  specimens  of  humanity,  —  who  of  the  very  g-ods 
eould  ever  have  commanded  them  by  love  ?  A  collar  roiind  the 
neck  and  a  eartwhip  flourished  over  the  back." — T.  Carlyle, 
Latter-Day  Pamphlets,  p.  47. 


CRIMINALS  :    ENEMIES    OF  SOCIAL    ORDER.     319 

to  inflict  on  criminals  the  vengeance  o£  society,  but 
simply,  solely,  only,  to  reform  tliem.  Keformation 
is  to  be  the  exclusive  object  of  the  punitive  sys- 
tem, reformation,  not  of  the  individual  only,  though 
primarily  that,  but  that  also  of  the  class  to  which 
he  belongs.  Incidentally  this  reformation  will  sat- 
isfy retributive  justice  in  the  only  way  in  which 
it  can  be  satisfied ;  for  that  instinct,  though  it 
may  be  glutted  by  revenge,  is  never  satisfied  by 
revenge.  It  is  implanted  in  the  human  soul,  to 
enable  us  to  inflict  pain  for  a  reformatory  purpose, 
and  is  satisfied  —  truly,  nobly,  divinely  satisfied  — 
only  by  the  reformation  of  the  wrong-doer.  Inci- 
dentally, reformation  furnishes  the  only  adequate 
protection  to  society.  But  this  protection  cannot 
be  furnished  if  society  administers  its  penal  system 
with  this  selfish  end  in  view.  Society  can  serve 
itself  well  only  as  it  is  unselfishly  seeking  to  serve 
others. 

It  would  carry  me  too  far  from  my  subject, 
which  is  simply  the  interpretation  of  Christ's  teach- 
ings and  their  application  to  current  questions, 
were  I  to  attempt  to  show  in  detail  what  methods 
of  penal  administration  this  Christian  principle 
would  involve ;  and  indeed  to  do  this  would  re- 
quire an  expert  knowledge  which  no  one  who  has 
not  a  life  familiarity  with  punitive  sj^stems  can 
possess.  It  must  suffice  to  say  in  general  terms 
that  society  has  neither  the  right  nor  the  capacity 
to  administer  justice ;  that  is,  to  determine  what 
amount  of  suffering  properly  belongs  to  a  given 


320      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

offense,  and  then  to  inflict  it.  It  has  the  right 
and  the  capacity  to  administer  redemption  ;  that 
is,  to  put  clearly  before  itself,  as  its  sole  object, 
the  cure  of  crime,  and  to  pursue  this  object  in 
the  spirit  of  a  strong  love,  and  by  processes  of 
discipline,  education,  and  inspiration.  I  may,  how- 
ever, illustrate  what  this  principle  would  involve 
by  some  instances  gathered  from  modern  punitive 
methods. 

Neither  fine  nor  imprisonment  should  ordinarily 
be  the  first  penalty  for  juvenile  offenders.  The 
State  of  Massachusetts  has  adopted  what  is  called 
the  Probation  System.^  State  agents  are  ap- 
pointed, and  every  complaint  against  a  boy  or 
girl  under  the  age  of  seventeen  must  be  laid  in 
writing  before  one  of  these  agents,  who  then  be- 
comes a  kind  of  guardian  of  the  accused.  He 
investigates  the  case.  If  in  his  judgment  the  boy 
may  safely  be  returned  to  his  home,  in  the  faith 
that  a  simple  admonition  from  the  bench  will  pre- 
vent the  recurrence  of  the  offense,  this  course  is 
pursued.  If  there  is  no  home,  or  if  in  his  judg- 
ment the  home  influences  will  be  evil  or  inade- 
quate, the  offender  is  put  under  the  immediate 
supervision  of  the  agent,  who  finds  some  home  for 
him.     If  this  is  impi'acticable,  or  if  the  nature  of 

1  Twenty-fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Prisons  of 
Massachusetts  for  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1895,  January,  1896, 
pp.  252-258 ;  Tallack,  Penological  and  Preventive  Principles, 
pp.  299-303  ;  Beport  of  New  York  Prison  Association  for  1894, 
pp.  136-144 ;  a  paper  on  the  ''  Massachusetts  System  of  Proba^ 
tion,"  by  Hannah  M.  Todd,  Probation  Officer. 


CRIMINALS  :    EXEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.      o21 

the  offenses  or  the  offender  is  such  that  more  offi- 
cial discipline  is  required,  then  he  may  be  sent  to 
a  reformatory  school.  In  point  of  fact,  only  about 
one  fifth  of  these  wards  of  the  State  are  sent  into 
other  homes  than  their  own,  and  only  one  ninth 
to  the  State  School  and  the  Reformatories.  This 
method  has  been  in  operation  since  1870,  with 
successful  results,  and  in  1880  the  system  was  so 
extended  as  to  include,  in  certain  cases,  adult  as 
well  as  juvenile  offenders. 

In  cases  of  imprisonment  the  whole  purpose  of 
the  prison  authorities,  from  the  entrance  of  the 
criminal  into  the  prison,  should  be  his  refor- 
mation. The  intermingling  of  criminals  in  a 
common  room  or  a  common  yard,  in  the  jail,  is 
condemned  by  all  authorities,  and  is  perpetuated 
only  because  of  public  indifference.  The  classifi- 
cation of  prisoners,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
men  or  their  offenses,  is  sometimes  attempted,  but 
not  with  great  success.  There  is  certainly  much 
to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  separate  cellular  confine- 
ment, at  least  for  a  time.  Under  this  system,  the 
prisoner  is  put  into  a  cell  by  himself,  shut  off  from 
all  intercourse  with,  and  sight  of,  prison  compan- 
ions ;  he  carries  on  his  industry  in  the  cell,  receives 
there  the  visits  of  the  chaplain,  and  is  allowed, 
under  careful  restriction,  visits  either  from  offi- 
cials or  friends.  Thus  the  deadly  influence  of 
absolutely  solitary  confinement  is  j)revented,  but 
with  this  mitigation  the  prisoner  is  in  compara- 
tive solitude,  compelled,  as  it  were,  to  reflect  on 


322      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

his  jjast  life  and  his  present  condition.  The  effect 
of  such  separate  confinement  is  much  like  that  of 
a  bath,  and  from  it  he  emerges,  at  least,  less  sub- 
ject to  the  contaminating  influence  of  other  crimi- 
nals, and  less  likely  to  exert  a  contaminating 
influence  upon  them. 

The  industries  of  the  prison  should  all  be  ad- 
justed with  reference,  not  to  making  money,  but 
to  making  men.^  The  contract  system,  by  which 
the  labor  of  the  prison  is  rented  out  to  contractors 
who  hire  the  work  of  the  prisoners  for  what  they 
can  make  out  of  it,  is  utterly  and  irredeemably 
bad. 2  It  interferes  with  the  discipline  of  the 
prison  ;  it  puts  the  prisoner  under  two  masters ; 
it  makes  his   labor  purely  servile  ;   and  when  he 

^  *'  We  are  indebted  to  Pope  Clement  XI.  for  having-  first  suc- 
cessfully introduced  labor  into  prison  discipline.  In  1704  he 
established  St.  Michael's  prison  for  boys  and  young  men,  in  Rome, 
in  which  he  caused  to  be  erected  both  workshops  and  school- 
rooms, and  which  he  termed  a  '  House  of  Correction.'  Over 
the  entrance,  and  upon  the  walls  of  the  prison,  he  placed  those 
oft-quoted  inscriptions  containing  sentiments  upon  which  we  have 
been  unable  to  improve  as  expressions  of  the  true  aim  of  prison 
discipline  :  '  For  the  reformation  and  education  of  criminal 
youths,  to  the  effect  that  those  who  when  idle  had  been  injurious 
to  the  state  might,  when  better  instructed  and  trained,  become 
useful  to  it ; '  also,  '  It  is  of  little  nse  to  restrain  criminals  by 
punishment  unless  you  reform  them  by  education.'  But,  for 
over  a  century  after  Pope  Clement  began  his  good  work  in  St. 
Michael's  prison,  little  was  accomplished  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  towards  the  betterment  of  prisoners." — J.  F.  Scott,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts State  Reformatory,  in  Proceedings  Annual  Prison  As- 
sociation National  Congress,  St  Paul,  June,  1894,  p.  60. 

■^  See  Report  of  National  Prison  Association,  1884,  pp.  138,  144; 
1888,  pp.  58,  63,  242. 


criminals:  enemies  of  social  order.    323 

comes  out  from  prison  he  hates  industry  even 
more  than  he  hated  it  when  he  entered.  It  is  a 
matter  of  small  consequence  whether  the  prison 
pays  its  expenses  or  not ;  what  is  of  consequence 
is,  that  the  prisoners  should  go  out  at  the  end  of 
their  confinement,  not  to  prey  upon  the  community 
again,  but  to  add  to  its  wealth  by  their  honest  in- 
dustry. It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  add  that 
the  religious  exercises  and  the  night  schools,  which 
should  be  connected  with  every  prison,  should  have 
the  same  object  in  view,  —  the  reformation  of  the 
offender. 

But  all  these  measures  are  subordinate  to  the 
fundamental  principle  involved  in  the  indetermi- 
nate sentence.  Under  the  ordinary  punitive  sys- 
tem, the  judge  before  whom  the  prisoner  is  tried 
determines  the  amount  of  penalty  to  be  inflicted 
upon  him  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offense 
which  he  has  committed,  though  under  most  of  our 
modern  systems  the  prisoner  may  reduce  the  term 
of  his  sentence  by  good  behavior.  Under  the 
system  of  the  indeterminate  sentence,  the  judge 
does  not  determine  the  amount  of  penalty  ;  that 
amount  has  no  direct  relation  to  the  offense.  The 
judge  and  jury  simply  determine  whether  tbe  man 
has  committed  an  offense  against  society.  That 
being  determined,  the  offender  is  sent  to  prison, 
and  another  tribunal  in  connection  wdth  the  prison 
determines  bow  long  the  confinement  shall  con- 
tinue. It  determines  this  question,  not  by  con- 
sidering the  offense  which    has    been  committed, 


324      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

but  by  considering  the  question  whether  he  is 
likely  ever  to  commit  another.  In  other  words, 
the  criminal  is  sent  to  a  prison,  as  a  lunatic  is 
sent  to  an  asylum  or  a  sick  man  to  a  hospital,  to 
remain  until  cured.  Under  this  system,  when  the 
prison  tribunal  is  satisfied  that  the  man  can  earn 
an  honest  livelihood,  and  is  fully  resolved  to  earn  an 
honest  livelihood,  and  has  probably  strength  of 
will  to  adhere  to  his  resolution,  employment  is  se- 
cured for  him  in  the  outside  world  and  he  is  dis- 
charged ;  not  because  retributive  justice  is  satisfied, 
not  because  he  has  paid  the  penalty  of  his  mis- 
deeds, bat  because  he  is  a  cured  man.  It  will  be 
asked.  Would  you  give  a  prison  tribunal  absolute 
authority  to  determine  this  question  ?  Would  you 
allow  them  to  discharge  a  murderer  at  the  end  of 
a  month's  confinement,  and  keep  in  prison  for  life 
a  boy  who  had  stolen  an  apple  ?  No  ;  this  would 
be  vesting  too  much  power  in  a  prison  tribunal : 
neither  do  we  now  allow  such  power  in  our  sen- 
tencing tribunal.  There  is  a  mininnim  and  a 
maximum  sentence,  and  within  those  limits  the 
judge  must  exercise  his  discretion.  It  would  be 
quite  legitimate  for  the  legislature,  in  initiating 
this  plan,  or  in  extending  it  where  it  has  already 
been  initiated,  to  put  some  limits  on  the  discretion- 
ary power  of  the  prison  tribunal.  It  might  well 
assume  that  certain  classes  of  criminals  of  dansfer- 
ous  tendencies  could  not  be  permanently  cured 
during  a  brief  confinement,  and  might  well  require 
their  continuance  in  the  reformatory  for  a  certain 


CRIMINALS:    ENEMIES    OF   SOCIAL    ORDER.      325 

minimum  length  of  time.  Would  not  the  prison 
tribunal  make  mistakes  ?  Would  it  not  discharge 
men  who  were  not  really  reformed,  and  who  would 
go  back  to  criminal  courses  again  ?  Yes,  it  cer- 
tainly would.  So  do  our  present  tribunals  make 
mistakes.  Infallibility  can  no  more  be  expected 
in  the  administration  of  redemption  than  in  the 
administration  of  retributive  justice ;  but  exj^eri- 
ence  had  demonstrated  that  the  mistakes  are  less 
disastrous  to  the  community  in  the  former  than  in 
the  latter  case.  While  from  thirty  to  fifty  per 
cent,  of  the  prisoners  discharged  from  our  States' 
prisons  are  rearrested  for  crime,  less  than  twenty 
per  cent,  of  those  discharged  from  the  Elniira 
Reformatory,^  where  the  indeterminate  sentence  is 
in  a  modified  form  carried  out,  return  to  criminal 
courses  again.  Will  not  the  abolition  of  the  re- 
tributive element,  and  the  substitution  of  the 
redemptive  element,  be  disastrous  in  its  influence 
on  criminal  classes  outside  the  jails  and  prisons? 
On  the  contrary,  experience  indicates  that  no 
cruelty  of  vengeful  punishment  exercises  so  de- 
terrent an  influence  on  the  criminal  class  as  the 
strict  and  rigorous  execution  of  such  a  redemptive 
system  as  is  here  indicated.  Criminals  brought  up 
for  sentence  continually  entreat  not  to  be  sent  to 
Elmira,   where   the  length  of  their  imprisonment 

1  See  address  of  R.  Brinckerhoff,  in  Report  of  National  Prison 
Association,  1889,  p.  186  ;  H.  C.  Lea,  in  Forum,  August,  1894  ; 
Eighteenth  Year-Book  New  York  State  Reformatory,  1893,  pp.  38 
and  40. 


326      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

will  depend  upon  their  reformation.  They  prefer 
to  pay  the  penalty  of  their  crime  by  a  definite  im- 
prisonment elsewhere,  and  then  return  to  crime 
again.^  There  is  nothing  which  the  criminal 
dreads  so  much  as  to  be  put  under  aggressive 
moral  influences,  and  kept  there  until  his  refor- 
mation is  complete.  Can  all  criminals  be  cured? 
No ;  there  are  incurable  criminals,  as  there  are 
incurable  lunatics  and  incurable  invalids,  and  for 
these  incurable  criminals  permanent  institutions 
should  be  provided,  where  they  should  serve  out 
the  remainder  of  life,  earning,  under  a  compulsory 
industrial  system,  so  much  toward  their  subsist- 
ence as  can  fairly  be  secured  from  them.  This 
redemptive  system  assumes  that,  when  the  crimi- 
nal is  cured  and  has  become  an  honest  and  efficient 
man,  he  can  find  employment ;  but  who  will  give 
employment  to  a  discharged  convict  ?  Very  few, 
under  the  present  system ;  for  the  discharged  con- 
vict comes  out  of  prison  with  the  stigma  of  his 
crime  upon  him,  and  with  the  probabilities,  as  in- 
dicated by  prison  statistics,  that  he  will  return 
to  crime  again.  But  under  the  redemptive  system 
he  comes  out  of  prison  with  the  affirmation  of  a 
competent  tribunal  that  he  has  been  cured ;  in 
other  words,  with  a  doctor's  certificate.  His  dis- 
charge is  a  quasi  letter  of  recommendation  ;  and, 
in  point  of  fact,  a  large  proportion  of  those  who 
are   thus    discharged    from   the  Elmira    Reforma- 

1  I  make  this  statement  on  the  authority  of  at  least  two  crimi- 
nal judg-es  in  New  York  city. 


CRIMINALS:    ENEMIES    OF    SOCIAL    ORDER.       327 

tory  have  employment  found   for  them  when  they 
''graduate." 

A  single  illustration  may  serve  to  put  in  a  clear 
light  the  difference  between  the  punitive  and  re- 
demptive systems.  Under  the  punitive  system,  a 
man  who  is  found  drunk  and  disorderly  in  the  streets 
of  New  York  city  is  arrested  and  sent  to  Blackwell's 
Island,  usually  for  ten  days.  This  gives  him  just 
time  enough  to  get  sober;  discharged,  he  goes 
straight  to  his  customary  saloon  and  his  customary 
companions,  and  begins  to  drink  again.  There 
are  well-known  "rounders"  who  divide  the  year 
nearly  equally  between  New  York  city  and  Black- 
well's  Island  under  this  system  of  ten  days'  im- 
prisonment. Under  the  redemptive  system,  society 
would  put  this  man,  who  will  not  or  cannot  con- 
trol his  appetite,  in  an  inebriate  asylum,  under  the 
best  medical  treatment,  shut  off  from  all  access  to 
liquor,  and  keep  him  there  until  such  a  habit  of 
sobriety  is  formed  that  he  can  be  safely  dis- 
charged. And  if  such  a  habit  of  sobriety  cannot 
be  formed,  then  it  would  keep  him  there,  or  in  the 
institution  for  incurables,  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
There  is  no  reason  why  society  should  bear  the 
burden  of  a  drunken  man  who  neither  supports 
himself  nor  his  family,  and  should  add  to  that  the 
burden  of  supporting  a  policeman  to  arrest  him, 
a  police  justice  to  try  and  sentence  him,  and  a 
prison  to  keep  him  in  idleness  during  half  the 
year. 


328      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

Society  teaches  us  to  hate  the  criminal ;  Christ 
teaches  us  to  love  anel  to  pit}"  him.  Society  gives 
expression  to  its  hatred  in  a  system  of  vindictive 
justice  ;  that  is,  in  a  system  of  penalties  adjusted 
to  express  the  degree  of  hatred  which  the  wrong- 
doing perpetrated  ought  to  excite.  Jesus  Christ 
bids  us  express  love  and  pity  in  redemptive  disci- 
pline, adjusted  solely  for  the  purpose  of  curing 
wrong-doers  and  making  them  sane  aud  healthy 
members  of  the  community.  Society  bids  us  or- 
ganize a  punitive  system  for  our  own  protection ; 
Jesus  Christ  tells  us  we  shall  best  save  ourselves 
by  seeking  to  save  our  neighbors.  Society  has 
great  faith,  in  spite  of  years  of  experience,  in  the 
deterrent  power  of  fear.  Jesus  Christ  uses  the 
deterrent  power  of  fear  very  sparingly  ;  relies  him- 
self, and  bids  his  followers  rely,  on  the  ins23iring 
power  of  hope  and  love,  enkindling  in  the  despair- 
ing and  the  outcast  a  new  aspiration,  and  inspiring 
them  to  a  new  life. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    SOCIAL    EVIL. 

An  unknown  j^oet  writes  in  the  Book  of  Prov- 
erbs the  description  of  a  scene  which  he  has  wit- 
nessed in  some  city  of  the  oklen  time  :  — 

For  at  the  window  of  my  house 
I  looked  forth  through  my  lattice  ; 
And  I  beheld  among  the  simple  ones, 
I  discerned  among-  the  youths, 

A  young  man, 

Void  of  understanding, 

Passing  through  the  street  near  her  corner. 

And  he  went  the  way  to  her  house  ; 

In  the  twilight,  in  the  evening  of  the  day, 

In  the  blackness  of  night  and  the  darkness  ; 
And  behold,  there  met  him  a  Woman 
With  the  attire  of  an  harlot,  and  wily  of  heart. 

She  is  clamorous  and  willful ; 

Her  feet  abide  not  in  her  house  ; 

Now  she  is  in  the  streets,  now  in  the  broad  places, 

And  lieth  in  wait  at  every  corner. 

So  she  caught  him,  and  kissed  him, 

With  an  impudent  face  she  said  unto  him  : 

"  Sacrifices  of  peace  offerings  are  with  me  ; 
This  day  have  I  paid  my  vows  ; 

Therefore  came  I  forth  to  meet  thee. 

Diligently  to  seek  thy  face, 
And  I  have  found  thee. 


330      CHRISTIANITY  AND   SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

I  have  spread  ray  couch  with  carpets  of  tapestry, 

With  striped  cloths  of  the  yarn  of  Egypt ; 

I  have  perfumed  my  bed 

With  myrrh,  aloes,  and  cinnamon. 

Come,  let  us  take  our  fill  of  love 
Until  the  morning ; 

Let  us  solace  ourselves  with  loves  ; 
For  the  goodman  is  not  at  home, 
He  is  gone  a  long  journey  : 
He  hath  taken  a  bag  of  money  with  him ; 
He  will  come  home  at  the  full  moon." 

With  her  much  fair  speech  she  causeth  him  to  yield. 
With  the  flattering  of  her  lips  she  f orceth  him  away. 

He  goeth  after  her  straightway, 
As  an  ox  goeth  to  the  slaughter. 
Or  as  one  in  fetters  to  the  correction  of  the  fool ; 

Till  an  arrow  strike  through  his  liver  ; 
As  a  bird  hasteth  to  the  snare, 
And  knoweth  not  that  it  is  for  his  life. 

Now  therefore,  my  sons,  hearken  unto  me, 

And  attend  to  the  words  of  my  mouth. 
Let  not  thine  heart  decline  to  her  ways, 

Go  not  astray  in  her  paths. 
For  she  hath  cast  down  many  wounded  : 

Yea,  all  her  slain  are  a  mighty  host. 
Her  house  is  the  way  to  Sheol, 

Going  down  to  the  chambers  of  death. ^ 

There  is  not  a  city,  ancient  or  modern,  pagan 
or  Christian,  in  which  this  scene  has  not  been 
repeated.  It  may  be  witnessed  every  night  in  our 
own  time  wherever  great  populations  are  gathered 
in  one  community.  What  shall  we  do  with  this 
woman?  What  would  Christ  have  us  do  with 
her  ? 

1  Proverbs,  Prof.  Pt.  G.  Moulton's  arrangement. 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  331 

What  society  does    with  her   is,  on  the  whole, 
well  expressed   by   the   phrase    often  used   to  de- 
scribe her.    She  is  said  to  be  an  abandoned  woman. 
We  think  of    her,  if  we  think   of  her  at   all,   as 
abandoned  of  God,  and  abandoned  by  herself,  to  a 
life  of  immorality,  vice,  and   shame.     A  man  may 
be  habitually  and    flagrantly    licentious,   and    not 
even  be  cast  out  from  reputable  society  while  still 
unrepentant ;  but  if  a  woman,    falling  or  enticed 
into  the  sin  of  unchastity,  enters  upon  a  life  of  im- 
morality, we  call  her  an   abandoned    woman  ;  we 
put  a  cordon  around  her  ;  we  bring  her  no  message 
of  salvation  ;  we  think  her  abandoned  by  herself, 
and  so  treat  her  that,  if  she  thinks  of  God  at  all, 
she  thinks  God  has  abandoned  her.     We  shut  her 
out  in  the  outer  darkness  —  out  from  all  homes ; 
from  honorable  avocations  and  employments  ;  from 
social  relationships ;   from  that  which  woman  longs 
for  most  of  all,  the  strong  love   of  a  strong  lover, 
and  let  her  find   only  the  false    pretence  of  it  in 
the  continuance  of  vice.      We  shut  her  out  from 
schools,  and  practically  from  churches.     She  may 
walk  in,  unknown,  to  the   sanctuary,  but  if  she  be 
known   she  will    receive   but   cold  welcome   there. 
If  taken  sick,  she  was,  until  recently,  shut  out  from 
most  hospitals.!     We  shut  her  out  from  our  hopes 
and   our  expectations.      Even  the  moralists  write 
that  for  this  class  there  is  no  hope,  and  that  as 
long  as  the  world  stands  it  must  be  expected  to 

^   Westminster  Revieiv,  vol.  xeiii.  pp.  121.   123  (January,  1870), 
and  pp.  508  f.  (April,  1870). 


332      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

infest  our  cities,  that  man  may  be  gratified  in  liis 
iniquity.^ 

In  thus  abandoning  her  to  herself,  shutting  her 
out  from  our  hopes  and  our  hel23fulness,  society  has 
pursued  three  courses  of  dealing  with  the  moral 
and  physical  ills  which  her  sin  inflicts  upon  the 
community. 

It  has  tried  by  legal  pains  and  penalties  to  re- 
press her  altogether.  This  was  the  method  of  an- 
cient Judaism,  which  punished  offenses  against 
the  Seventh  Commandment  by  death.^  This  was 
the  method  of  ancient  Rome,  which  visited  severe 
penalties  upon  the  offenders  ;  confiscated  the  house, 
the  clothing,  and  the  furniture ;  sentenced  them  to 
be  flogged,  to  be  banished,  to  work  in  the  mines, 
or  to  be  executed.      This  was  the  method  under 

1  Westminster  Beview,  vol.  xcii.  p.  182,  July,  1869.  I  am  speak- 
ing here  of  professional  prostitutes,  not  of  women  who  have  been 
betrayed,  fallen  by  a  single  lapse,  and  endeavor  thereafter  to  re- 
turn to  a  pure  life.  Says  an  expert  worker  among  the  unfor- 
tunate and  vicious  concerning  such  (Report  of  Aid  given  to  Des- 
titute Mothers  and  Infants,  ^.  Q) :  "It  is  sometimes  said  that  a 
woman  who  has  once  done  wrong  is  shut  out  from  all  hope  of 
retrieving  her  character,  that  no  respectable  employment  is  open 
to  her,  that  no  home  will  receive  her,  that  she  can  never  marry. 
Such  has  not  been  our  experience.  We  are  able  to  say,  and  do 
say  With  perfect  truth,  to  the  young  women  who  come  to  us  : 
"  Do  not  think,  because  you  have  done  wrong  once,  that  you  can- 
not be  a  good,  respectable  woman.  It  depends  on  yourself.  If 
people  see  that  you  wish  to  do  right,  if  you  lead  a  steady,  upright 
life,  especially  if  you  are  a  good  mother,  you  will  live  down  the 
past,  you  will  be  respected.  We  will  do  what  we  can  for  you, 
but  it  is  little  that  any  one  else  can  do ;  everything  depends  on 
your  own  behavior." 

2  Deut.  xxii.  13-27. 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  333 

Charlemagne,  which  extended  the  penalties  to 
those  who  harbored  the  abandoned  woman.  It  was 
the  method,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  of  St.  Louis 
of  France,  repeated,  in  spite  of  failure,  again  in 
the  sixteenth  century.^  It  is  the  method  to-day  in 
most  Anglo-Saxon  and  in  all  Puritan  communities, 
though  the  penalties  are  no  longer  so  severe.  Pub- 
lic infamy,  scourging,  confiscation  of  goods,  per- 
petual banishment,  the  galleys,  death  itself,  have 
all  been  tried  in  the  endeavor  to  repress  the  social 
evil  by  prohibitory  measures,  and  all  have  failed.^ 
The  prophetic  books  of  the  Old  Testament  contain 
many  allusions  which  convince  the  student  that  Mo- 
saic legislation  failed  to  rid  Palestine  of  the  harlot. 
The  licentiousness  of  Rome  was  not  lessened  by 
the  penalties  of  Constantine.  The  ordinances  of 
Charlemagne  were  soon  abandoned  as  impracti- 
cable or  useless.  St.  Louis  of  France  found  legal 
penalties  unavailing,  and  substituted  an  equally  un- 

1  Westminster  Review,  vol.  xciii.  p.  126. 

2  "  The  first  ages  of  the  Christian  Church  were  followed  by 
centuries  during  which  the  history  of  this  class,  in  all  the  pro- 
fessedly Christian  cities  of  Europe,  is  one  prolonged  tale  of  sav- 
age persecution.  These  poor  women  were  fined,  imprisoned, 
loaded  with  chains,  flogged  in  public,  pilloried,  branded,  racked, 
expelled  from  cities  and  from  provinces,  sold  into  slavery.  Of  the 
many  modes  of  torture  invented  to  terrify  the  people  from  profli- 
gacy, we  will  cite  one  as  a  specimen.  A  custom  prevailed  at 
Toulouse  of  shutting  these  poor  women  up  in  cages,  which  were 
then  plunged  three  times  into  the  nearest  river,  the  whole  popu- 
lation being  assembled  to  witness  the  scene,  and  encouraged  to 
assail  with  mud  and  filth  the  half-drowned  creatures  as  they  re- 
turned home."  —  Contemporary  Beview,  vol.  xiii.  p.  24,  "  Lovers 
of  the  Lost."  by  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler. 


334      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

availing  system  of  regulation.  The  earlier  policy 
of  repression  in  France  lias  been  supplanted  by 
one  of  license ;  nor  can  one  who  knows  anything 
of  the  condition  of  New  York  and  London  where 
prohibition  is  attempted,  as  compared  with  that  of 
Paris  and  Vienna  where  regulation  is  attempted, 
declare  that  one  scheme  has  succeeded  much  better 
than  the  other.  The  apparently  trustworthy  sta- 
tistics respecting  the  number  of  abandoned  women 
quite  conclusively  demonstrates  the  failure  of  re- 
pression by  legal  pains  and  penalties. 

Failing  to  prohibit,  society  has  attempted  par- 
tially to  protect  itself  by  a  policy  of  segregation. 
She  has  been  put  in  a  quarter  by  herself,  required 
to  wear  a  peculiar  dress,  and  permitted  to  practice 
her  unholy  calling,  provided  she  will  do  it  within 
defined  limits.  This  was  the  method  which  St. 
Louis  attempted  after  the  failure  of  his  prohibi- 
tory policy.^  This  was  the  method  attempted  in 
the  fifteenth  century  by  Spain,  with  the  sanction 
and  cooperation  of  an  army  of  ecclesiastics.  In 
our  own  century  it  has  been  essayed  again  in 
Rome ;  and  in  recent  discussions  it  has  been  j^ro- 
posed  by  moral  reformers  as  a  remedy  for  the  more 
notorious  evils  resultant  from  this  vice  in  the  city 
of  New  York.  But  segregation  has  succeeded  no 
better  than  repression.  The  abandoned  woman 
would  not  wear  her  uniform ;  she  would  not  re- 
main in  the  Ghetto  which  had  been  reserved  for 
her.     She  defied  or  evaded  the  penalties  attached 

^   Westminster  Review,  vol.  xeiii.  p.  126. 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  335 

to  her  issuing  from  it,  and  the  black  district  dedi- 
cated to  vice  became  a  fountain  of  poison,  send- 
ing its  virus  throughout  the  city.  One  might  as 
well  attempt  to  keep  the  body  healthy  by  leav- 
ing poisoned  globules  in  the  blood,  and  trying  to 
shut  them  up  in  one  spot,  as  attempt  to  keep  a  city 
pure  by  permitting  immorality,  but  endeavoring 
to  confine  it  within  the  limits  of  a  single  pestilen- 
tial district.  The  report  made  by  Mr.  Elbridge 
T.  Gerry  of  the  result  of  this  experiment  in  the 
city  of  Rome,  as  attested  by  Cardinal  Simeoni, 
ought  to  be  quite  conclusive  upon  this  subject. 
To  err  is  pardonable,  but  to  repeat  the  errors  of 
others,  demonstrated  by  their  experience  to  be 
errors,  is  unpardonable.  The  testimony  of  Mr. 
Gerry  on  this  subject  is  so  important  that  I  trans- 
fer it  in  full  from  his  address  published  in  the 
"  Philanthropist "'  of  March,  1895  :  — 

"  In  the  winter  of  1886-87,  while  at  the  city  of  Rome, 
Italy,  I  had  a  personal  interview  with  Cardinal  Simeoni, 
which  lasted  over  two  hours,  chiefly  in  reference  to  the 
course  pursued  by  the  Italian  government,  while  in  the 
hands  of  the  Vatican,  in  the  matter  of  regulating  prosti- 
tution. The  Cardinal  stated  to  me  that  the  experiment 
of  attempting  to  confine  sexual  vice  within  a  specified 
district  had  been  most  thoroughly  tried.  A  portion  of 
the  city,  remote  itself  and  not  particularly  attractive  for 
purposes  of  residence,  had  been  selected.  The  govern- 
ment had  defined  by  metes  and  bounds  its  limits  ;  had 
practically  taken  possession  of  the  various  houses,  per- 
mitting the  owners  to  rent  them  to  the  licensed  prosti- 


336      CHlilSTIAXITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

tutes  ;  and,  in  order  to  prevent  contact  with  the  outer 
world  and  the  prostitutes,  when  once  within  the  district, 
leaving  the  same  and  again  spreading  over  the  city, 
various  shojjkeej^ers  in  the  necessaries  of  life,  such  as 
butchers,  grocers,  hardware,  dry  goods,  and  the  like, 
were  induced  to  open  stores  in  the  locality,  so  that  the 
wants  of  the  residents  might  be  fully  supplied.  At  the 
same  time,  a  very  strict  cordon  of  j)olice  was  placed 
around  the  geographical  boundary,  and  any  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  females  who  had  once  entered  the  dis- 
trict to  escape  therefrom  was  followed  by  j^rompt  and 
immediate  arrest.  The  idea  was  so  novel  that  at  first 
quite  a  number  of  registered  prostitutes  entered  the  dis- 
trict, hired  and  occupied  the  houses,  and  attempted  to 
ply  their  vocation  there.  But  the  district  soon  became 
very  notorious.  The  thieving,  the  lawless,  and  the  sedi- 
tious found  their  way  there,  and  became  permanent  resi- 
dents. They  brought  with  them  very  little  money,  and, 
as  the  sole  means  which  the  inmates  of  the  district  had 
of  supporting  themselves  was  by  the  sale  of  their  per- 
sons, it  was  obvious  that  their  custom  must  come  from 
without,  and  not  from  within,  as  men  generally  did  not 
care  to  be  known  as  inhabitants  of  the  district.  And  as 
soon  as  the  fact  of  its  establishment  was  made  public, 
men  were  very  wary  about  entering  the  district,  for  fear 
of  identification.  This  was  not  only  true  of  married 
men,  but  also  of  single  ones,  as  the  only  jDurpose  for 
which  they  could  be  found  therein  was  not  a  moral  one, 
and  the  class  of  men  that  did  enter  the  district  was  not 
those  who  would  spend  money  lavishly  on  vice.  And 
it  was  not  long  before  the  storekeepers  com})lained  that 
they  coukl  not  make  a  living.  Even  the  women  found 
that  the  money  did  not  flow  in  upon  them  as  it  did  when 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  337 

they  practiced  their  calling  unrestricted  by  geographical 
limits,  and  it  was  not  long  before  escapes  from  the  dis- 
trict became  impossible  of  prevention  by  the  police,  and 
some  of  the  most  notorious  women  in  Rome,  after  hav- 
ing been  put  there  and  sent  there,  made  their  escape, 
and  were  found  in  other  quarters  plying  their  trade. 
Every  effort  was  made  by  the  police,  acting  under  the 
directions  of  the  government,  to  restrict  the  inmates 
to  the  geographical  lines,  but  it  was  like  attempting  to 
retain  eels  in  a  basket,  and  they  slipped  out  impercepti- 
bly ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  shopkeepers  could 
not  make  their  living,  and  the  unfortunate  women  who 
occupied  the  quarter  were  themselves  in  a  state  of  ex- 
treme destitution.  The  government  then  abandoned 
absolutely  the  attempt  to  restrain  them  in  any  locality, 
and  the  present  government  of  Italy  simply  provides 
for  their  registration  and  surveillance  by  the  police. 
The  system  there  is  not  even  as  stringent  as  it  is  in 
France  in  regard  to  medical  examinations  and  inspec- 
tions. 

"  The  Cardinal  stated  to  me  that  the  attempt  to  dis- 
trict vice  was,  in  his  judgment,  a  stupendous  failure; 
that  the  Church  had  used  every  effort  to  reclaim  the 
fallen  when  so  environed  by  the  police,  and  placed  in 
a  locality  where  it  could  put  its  hand  upon  them,  but 
to  no  purpose." 

The  third  method  which  society  has  adopted  in 
dealing  with  the  social  evil  is  regulation.  Society 
has  said :  "  This  woman  is  abandoned ;  she  is  be- 
yond all  hope  and  help  ;  and  yet  the  city  cannot  do 
without  her.  It  would  not  be  safe  if  she  did  not 
exist.     There  must  be   some   outlet  for  the  fiery 


338      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

passions  of  men :  therefore  we  will  license  her, 
guard  against  the  physical  evils  which  her  trade 
produces,  and  so  reduce  the  dangers  of  her  pres- 
ence to  a  minimum."  This  was  the  method  of 
ancient  Greece.  The  state  not  only  tolerated  but 
protected  abandoned  women,  and  taxed  and  took 
profit  from  them.  This  is  the  method  of  modern 
Paris,  Berlin,  and  Vienna;  and  this  method  has 
been  tried  in  successive  cities  of  America,  specifi- 
cally St.  Louis,  Cleveland,  Davenport  (Iowa)  and 
perhaps  elsewhere.  Even  England  has  adopted 
this  method  in  India,  for  the  benefit  or  the  demor- 
alization, as  the  reader  may  determine,  of  the  Brit- 
ish army.  But  this  method  has  not  succeeded  any 
better  than  the  others.  It  has  increased  vice  by 
the  endeavor  to  make  it  safe  and  reasonable.  Im- 
morality was  worse  in  Corinth  under  license  than 
in  Jerusalem  under  prohibition.  It  is  worse  in 
Paris,  Berlin,  and  Vienna  under  license  than  in 
London  and  New  York  under  prohibition.  The 
license  system  has  not  even  proved  effective  for 
the  one  purpose  for  the  sake  of  which  it  is  ap- 
proved by  its  apologists  and  defenders.  It  has  not 
even  lessened  the  ravages  of  disease.  Says  a  care- 
ful writer  in  the  "  Westminster  Review  "  :  ^  "  It 
appears,  then,  that  notwithstanding  the  elaborate, 
costly,  and,  in  respect  to  the  women  concerned, 
tyrannical  machinery  of  police  and  sanitary  sur- 
veillance in  question,  —  machinery  which  is  worked 
by  ample  power,  and  under  circumstances,  as  well 
1  Vol.  cvi.  p.  148,  July,  1876. 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  339 

as  in  the  presence  of  a  public  opinion,  facilitating 
its  action,  —  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  registration 
of  the  public  women  of  Paris  results,  in  so  far  as 
seven  eighths  of  them  are  concerned,  in  signal 
failure ;  that  year  by  year  even  the  small  number 
of  those  who  are  on  the  register  steadily  lessens ; 
that  the  number  of  maisons  tolerees  is  steadily  les- 
sening ;  that  the  number  of  those  women  who  are 
subject  to  the  most  complete  inspection,  namely, 
inmates  of  those  houses,  is  steadily  lessening : 
that  the  proportion  of  registered  prostitutes  found 
infected  with  disease  is  steadily  increasing."  M. 
Lecour,  the  former  administrator  of  this  system 
of  licensure,  estimates  the  number  of  abandoned 
women  in  Paris  at  30,000,  of  whom  only  about 
4,000,  less  than  one  seventh,  were  brought  under 
the  license  system,  and  the  proportion  continually 
lessened,  while  at  the  same  time  the  disease  which 
this  traffic  brings  into  the  city  continually  in- 
creased under  this  system  of  license.  The  results 
of  the  Paris  experiment  are  all  summed  up  in  one 
sentence  from  M.  Lecour's  official  report :  "  They 
demonstrate  that  prostitution  augments,  and  that  it 
becomes  more  dangerous  to  the  public  health." 
This  was  in  1876  ;  since  then  the  enforcement  of 
the  license  system  has  been  transferred  from  a 
special  bureau  to  the  regular  police,  but  without 
either  a  diminution  of  the  number  of  unlicensed 
women  or  a  lessening  of  the  disease.  The  similar 
experiment   in    India   has    been   accompanied   by 


340      CHRIST! AXTTY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

similar  results.  The  disease,  against  which  the 
license  system  was  expected  to  protect  the  troops, 
rose  steadily  under  that  system  year  by  year, 
until,  from  196.8  per  thousand  in  1871,  the  year 
the  act  was  passed,  it  became  371  per  thousand  in 
1888,  the  latest  year  of  which  I  have  been  able 
to  obtain  statistics.  It  is  not  strange  that  experi- 
ments in  America  have  produced  similar  resnlts. 
After  four  years  of  trial  in  St.  Louis,  the  license 
system  was  abandoned  as  an  ignominious  failure, 
in  both  a  sanitary  and  a  moral  point  of  view.  The 
results  during  the  experiment  showed  an  increase  of 
thirty-four  per  cent,  in  the  number  of  houses  of  vice, 
and  of  thirty-five  per  cent,  in  the  number  of  recog- 
nized women,  besides  those  unknown ;  while  the 
proportion  of  diseases  increased  from  three  and 
three-fourths  per  cent,  to  six  per  cent.  So  irre- 
sistible was  the  demonstration  of  failure  that  the 
license  law  was  repealed  by  a  vote  of  three  fourths 
in  the  Missouri  Senate,  and  by  a  vote  of  ninety  to 
one  in  the  House.  Such  facts  as  can  be  gathered 
from  unofficial  reports  indicate  similar  results  in 
Cleveland  and  Daven])ort. 

Christ's  method  of  dealing  with  the  abandoned 
woman  is  fundamentally  different.  It  rests  upon 
a  radically  different  assumption,  and  is  inspired 
by  a  radically  different  spirit.  To  Christ,  "  the 
woman  that  was  a  sinner "  is  not  an  abandoned 
woman.  She  is  not  shut  out  from  the  mercies 
and  the  helpfulness  of  God  ;  she  is  not  shnt  out 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  341 

from  Christ  s  congregations ;  she  is  not  shut  out 
from  his  private  personal  conversation  ;  she  is  not 
shut  out  from  his  society.  When  he  preaches, 
the  publicans  and  the  harlots  troop  into  his  con- 
pi-eaation  to  hear  him,  and  he  welcomes  them. 
When  he  sits  at  the  well,  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
ask  a  favor  at  the  hand  of  an  impure  woman,  and 
enter  into  social  and  friendly  conversation  with 
her.  When  such  a  woman  proffers  him  the  offer- 
ings of  a  reverent  and  repentant  love,  he  accepts 
them.  Such  were  his  relations  with  this  class 
that  the  name  of  one  of  his  intimate  disciples 
has  been  given  by  his  church  to  all  such  peni- 
tents, although  later  scholarship  holds  that  there 
is  little  reason  to  think  that  Mary  Magdalene 
ever  bore  the  evil  character  attributed  to  her. 
To  Christ,  not  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner  was 
abandoned,  —  not  for  her  had  he  lost  hope.  The 
men  of  honorable  position,  who  used  their  religion 
to  cloak  their  iniquity,  —  these  were  the  men  who 
sometimes  seemed  to  him  abandoned  of  themselves, 
of  God,  and  of  all  beneficent  influences,  never  the 
drunkard,  never  the  harlot. 

There  is  one  story  in  Christ's  life  as  j^athetic  as 
any  story  in  that  narrative  so  full  of  pathos.^  The 
Oriental  house  was  built  around  an  open  court. 
The  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  were  porches  open- 
in  sf  on  this  court.  A  Pharisee  invited  Christ  to 
dine  with  him.  He  accepted  the  invitation.  The 
1  Luke  x\\.  36-50. 


342      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

villagers  trooped  in  and  filled  the  open  square. 
He  reclined  at  the  table,  his  naked  feet  stretched 
out  behind  him.  A  woman  of  the  town  crept  in 
among  the  villagers  and  listened.  Something  in 
his  words  or  in  his  numner  stirred  the  dormant 
life  in  her,  fanned  the  dead  hope  into  a  flame, 
awakened  remorse  for  the  past  and  sorrow  for  the 
present,  and  the  great  tears  gathered  in  her  eyes, 
and  then  fell  down,  drop  by  drop,  upon  the  naked 
feet  of  the  Master.  Startled  that  tears  from  such 
eyes  as  hers  should  fall  on  feet  such  as  his,  she 
kneeled,  and,  taking  the  long  tresses  of  her  hair, 
wiped  the  polluting  drops  away,  and  then,  finding 
herself  unresisted,  took  from  her  bosom  a  box  of 
ointment,  broke  it  open,  and  anointed  his  feet 
with  it.  The  Pharisee,  to  whom  she  was  an 
abandoned  woman,  looked  on  amazed,  and  said: 
"  This  man  is  no  prophet,  or  he  would  have  known 
what  manner  of  woman  she  is;  for  she  is  a  sinner." 
But  Christ  said  :  "  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee  ;  go 
in  peace."  The  heart  of  womanhood  is  not  easily 
extinguished,  and  what  the  Master  said  in  the 
chamber  of  death  he  said  again  in  this  other 
death  chamber :  "  She  is  not  dead,  she  sleepeth." 
Love  can  call  her  back  to  life  again.  She  is  not 
abandoned  of  God  ;  she  is  not  abandoned  of  her- 
self. Why  should  we  abandon  her  ?  Why  should 
we  reach  out  a  hand  to  help  every  other  sinner, 
and  none  to  this  one?  Why  oi)en  the  doors  to 
every  other  sinner  and  close  them  to  this  one  ? 


THE   SOCIAL    EVIL.  343 

Christ's  first  principle  was  that  vice  in  woman 
is  curable.  His  second  was  equally  radical  and 
far-reaching.  He  treated  the  same  vice  as  not  less 
culpable  in  man.  He  did  not  condone  in  the  one 
what  he  condemned  in  the  other.  A  woman  was 
once  brought  to  him.^  She  had  been  taken  in 
adultery.  The  Pharisees  who  stood  around  asked 
for  his  judgment  upon  her.  Moses  said  she  should 
be  put  to  death ;  what  said  he  ?  "  Let  him  that  is 
without  sin  among  you  cast  the  first  stone,"  he 
said.  Then  he  stooped  and  wrote  upon  the  ground 
that  he  might  not  look  upon  her  shame.  And 
they  departed  one  by  one,  convicted  by  their  own 
consciences,  and  left  her  alone  with  the  Master. 
Then  he  turned  to  her  with  the  question,  "  Hath 
no  man  condemned  thee  ? "  "No  man.  Lord." 
"  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee  ;  go  and  sin  no 
more."  Whatever  other  significance  this  incident 
has,  certainly  it  has  this,  that  what  is  sin  in 
woman  is  not  less  sin  in  man.  True,  unchastity 
in  woman  is  more  destructive  of  the  family,  more 
destructive  of  society,  apparently  more  destructive 
of  the  individual  character,  than  in  man ;  but 
this  does  not  make  it  the  greater  sin.  "  Would 
you  learn,"  says  Dr.  Napheys,^  "  the  only  possible 
method  of  reforming  sinful  women  ?  Three  words 
contain  the  secret,  —  Reform  the  men.     In  them, 

1  John  viii.  2-11.  Although  there  is  some  doubt  as  to  this 
passage  on  external  grounds,  and  it  is  bracketed  in  the  Revised 
Version,  the  internal  evidence  leaves  small  doubt  as  to  its  sub- 
stantial genuineness. 

^  Transmission  of  Life,  pp.  128,  129o 


344      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

in  their  illicit  lusts,  in  their  misgoverned  passions, 
in  their  selfish  desires,  in  their  godless  disregard 
of  duty,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  wages  of  sin,  in 
their  want  of  nobleness  to  resist  temptation,  in 
their  false  notions  of  health,  is  the  source  of  all 
this  sin."  Truly  in  the  great  majority  of  cases 
this  is  the  source  of  the  sin,  and  this  is  the  direc- 
tion in  which,  first,  reform  is  to  be  wrought. 
Tridy  no  chapter  in  human  history  is  more  shame- 
ful than  that  which  records  the  ignominy  with 
which  men  have  overwhelmed  sinful  women,  and 
the  pride  which  they  have  taken  in  the  sins  of 
men.  Says  Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  "  History  of  Euro- 
pean Morals  "  ^ :  — 

"The  contrast  between  the  levity  with  which  the 
frailty  of  men  has  in  most  ages  been  regarded,  and 
the  extreme  severity  with  which  women  who  have  been 
guilty  of  the  same  offense  have  generally  been  treated, 
forms  one  of  the  most  singular  anomalies  in  moral  his- 
tory, and  appears  the  more  remarkable  when  we  re- 
member that  the  temj^tation  usually  springs  from  the 
sex  which  is  so  readily  pardoned  ;  tliat  the  sex  which  is 
visited  with  such  crushing  penalties  is  proverbially  the 
most  weak ;  and  that  in  the  case  of  women,  but  not  in 
the  case  of  men,  the  vice  is  very  commonly  the  result 
of  the  most  abject  misery  and  poverty.  ...  At  the 
present  day,  —  although  the  standard  of  morals  is  far 
higher  than  in  pagan  Rome,  —  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  the  inequality  of  the  censure  which  is  bestowed 
upon  the  two  sexes  is  not  as  great  as  in  the  days  of 

1  Vol.  ii.  pp.  365-367. 


THE   SOCIAL   EVIL.  345 

paganism,  and  that  inequality  is  continually  the  cause 
of  the  most  shameful  and  the  most  pitiable  injustice. 
In  one  respect,  indeed,  a  great  retrogression  resulted 
from  chivalry,  and  long  survived  its  decay.  The  char- 
acter of  the  seducer,  and  especially  of  the  passionless 
seducer,  who  pursues  his  career  simply  as  a  kind  of 
sport,  and  under  the  influence  of  no  stronger  motive 
than  vanity  or  a  spirit  of  adventure,  and  who  designates 
his  successes  in  destroying  the  honor  of  women  his  con- 
quests, has  been  glorified  and  idealized  in  the  popular 
literature  of  Christendom  in  a  manner  to  which  we  can 
find  no  parallel  in  antiquity.  When  we  reflect  that  the 
object  of  such  men  is,  by  the  coldest  and  most  deliberate 
treachery,  to  blast  the  lives  of  innocent  women ;  when 
we  compare  the  levity  of  his  motive  with  the  irrepara- 
ble injury  he  inflicts  ;  and  when  we  remember  that  he 
can  only  deceive  his  victim  by  persuading  her  to  love 
him,  and  can  only  ruin  her  by  persuading  her  to  trust 
him,  —  it  must  be  owned  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  cruelty  more  wanton  and  more  heartless,  or  a 
character  combining  more  numerous  elements  of  infamy 
and  of  dishonor.  That  such  a  character  should  for 
many  centuries  have  been  the  popular  ideal  of  a  vast 
section  of  literature ;  that  it  should  have  been  the  con- 
tinual boast  of  those  who  most  plumed  themselves  upon 
their  honor,  —  is  assuredly  one  of  the  most  mournful  facts 
in  history,  and  it  represents  a  moral  deflection  certainly 
not  less  than  was  revealed  in  ancient  Greece  by  the 
position  that  was  assigned  to  the  courtesan." 

In  the  story  of  the  "  Scarlet  Letter,"  Hester 
Prynne  wears  the  symbol  of  her  sin  upon  her 
breast,  while  Mr.  Dimmesdale  wears  a  like  scar- 


346      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

let  letter  hidden  in  his  garments  from  all  other 
eyes,  but  burnt  into  his  bosom.  After  a  long 
struggle  the  story  comes  to  its  tragical  yet  re- 
splendent conclusion,  when  the  guilty  clergyman 
conquers  himself  and  his  fears,  goes  up  into  the 
pillory  where  she  once  stood  alone  in  her  disgrace, 
and,  standing  by  her  side,  holds  the  child  of  their 
sinful  love  by  his  hand,  and  there  confesses  his  sin 
before  those  who  had  done  him  reverence.  Not 
until  our  civilization  shall  have  wrought  out  in  life 
what  Hawthorne  wrought  out  in  "  The  Scarlet 
Letter  "  —  not  until  the  man  takes  his  stand  in 
the  pillory  by  the  woman,  and  the  scarlet  letter  is 
seen  on  the  breast  of  the  one  as  of  the  other,  and 
both  bear  the  ineffable  shame,  and  each  help  the 
other  back  to  the  ineffable  glory  —  shall  we  find 
Christ's  remedy. 

In  brief,  then,  Christ's  method  of  dealing  with 
the  social  evil  is  precisely  the  same  as  his  method 
of  dealing  with  other  crimes,  —  the  method,  not  of 
permission  and  regulation,  not  of  segregation  and 
protection,  not  of  mere  prohibition  and  penalty, 
but  the  method  of  compassion  and  cure.  Chris- 
tianity is  therapeutic.  In  so  far  as  licentiousness 
is  a  violation  of  the  social  order,  Christ's  method 
would  prohibit  it  by  law.  The  law-breaker  would 
be  arrested,  not  to  be  punished  for  her  sin,  but  to 
be  cured  of  it ;  to  be  separated  from  the  evil  influ- 
ences which  have  brought  her  into  sin  ;  to  be 
brought  under  the  influences  which  would  lead  her 
into  paths  of  virtue,  and,  wherever  the  cure  could 


THE   SOCIAL    EVIL.  347 

not  be  effected,  to  be  kept  in  confinement  for  the 
rest  of  her  life,  not  to  punish  her  for  past  sin,  but 
to  protect  her  and  to  protect  the  community  from 
sin  in  the  future.  It  is  not  true  that  the  fallen 
woman  is  an  irrecoverable  woman.  History  dis- 
proves this  cynical  assumption.  The  homes  that 
have  been  established  and  the  institutions  that 
have  been  opened  for  the  reform  of  fallen  women 
have  not  failed  in  their  mission.  In  spite  of  the 
coldness  of  the  community,  in  spite  of  the  poor 
support  given  to  them,  in  spite  of  the  few  help- 
ing hands,  the  record  of  their  results  compares 
favorably  with  that  of  other  institutions  seeking 
the  reformation  of  other  offenders.^ 

I  can  hardly  hope  that  these  pages  will  ever  fall 
under  the  eye  of  what  society  —  with  an  infidel's 

1  At  the  Clerical  Union,  of  New  York,  March  9,  1896,  Mr.  H. 
A.  Gould,  of  the  New  York  Rescue  Work,  stated  that,  of  the  g-irls 
whom  that  organization  succeeded  in  reaching  at  all,  from  seventy- 
eight  to  eighty-two  per  cent,  were  reformed ;  and  the  statistics 
of  the  Florence  Mission  for  1886-87  report,  out  of  241  admitted 
to  the  Home,  68  converted  to  Christ,  85  provided  with  situa- 
tions, 21  returned  to  their  own  homes  or  to  friends,  and  only 
19  presumably  returned  to  their  old  life.  The  remainder  are 
accounted  for  as  sent  to  other  homes  or  to  hospitals.  While  these 
figures  are  not  conclusive,  they  certainly  indicate  the  final  refor- 
mation of  a  very  considerable  proportion,  —  probably  over  half. 
"  In  the  Florence  Crittenton  Mission,  in  Bleecker  Street,  New  York, 
250  of  these  girls  have  been  rescued  every  year  for  the  twelve 
years  it  has  been  opened.  In  addition  to  this  work,  Mr.  Critten- 
ton has  opened  twenty-one  homes  in  as  many  different  States, 
where  annually  about  three  thousand  girls  find  a  Christian  home 
and  such  training  as  makes  them  self-respecting,  self-supporting 
women."  —  Thanksgiving  Day  Announcement,   1895.      The  fol- 


348      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

denial  of  the  Christian's  hope  —  calls  an  "  aban- 
doned woman."  If  they  should,  I  should  wish  to 
say  to  her,  what  I  have  tried  to  say  to  her  sisters 
for   her :    "  You  are    not    an    abandoned   woman. 

lowing  is  ^ven  as  the  result  of  three  years'  work  in  the  Florence 
Crittenton  Mission  in  San  Francisco,  Cal. :  — 

Whole  number  admitted 190 

Number  known  to  have  gone  astray 24 

"        lost  track  of 13 

"        dead 5 

—  42 
Number  at  service  doing  well 47 

"        returned  to  parents  doing  well         .        .        .        .53 

"        married  doing  well 23 

"        in  active  Christian  work 3 

—  126 
Remaining  in  the  Home 22 

190 
From  The  Traffic  in  Girls,  by  Mrs.  Charlton  Edholm,  p.  239. 
In  the  Mission  in  San  Jos^,  Cal..  there  were  in  one  year  184 
professed  conversions.  "  Much  care  has  been  taken  to  account 
for  only  those  who  were  considered  converted.  Most  of  the  184 
are  members  of  good  standing  in  San  Josd  churches."  Idetn, 
p.  218.  For  an  interesting  account  of  efforts  to  reach  and  save 
this  class  in  past  centuries,  and  the  results,  see  the  valuable 
article  by  Mrs.  Josephine  E.  Butler,  quoted  above,  —  "  Lovers  of 
the  Lost,"  Contemporary  Review,  vol.  xiii.  p.  16  (January,  1870). 
Mrs.  Butler  says,  p.  29:  "There  are  many  indications  in  the 
history  of  this  class  of  people,  of  occasional  sympathetic  move- 
ments among  themselves,  of  yearning  desires  for  restoration,  and 
of  a  spirit  of  weeping  and  supplication  poured  forth  on  them 
when  no  human  preacher  had  summoned  them  to  repent.  In 
1489  all  the  outcasts  of  Amiens,  a  great  army  of  weeping,  re- 
morseful women,  applied  to  the  civil  authorities  for  a  place  of 
retreat,  where  they  might  hide  their  shame  and  sorrow  and 
devote  tliemselves  to  lionest  labor  and  to  prayer.  Their  request 
was  granted.  In  other  places  they  formed  associations  among 
themselves  for  the  correction  of  tlieir  morals,  and  to  aid  each 
other  in  return  to  virtue." 


THE    SOCIAL    EVIL.  349 

You  have  sinned :  so  have  I ;  so  have  we  all. 
But  you  are  still  God's  child.  He  has  not  aban- 
doned you  ;  do  not  abandon  yourself."  The  trav- 
eler in  South  America,  startled  by  a  plaintive  cry 
in  the  darkened  forest,  is  told  by  his  guide  that  it 
is  not  a  bird ;  it  is  the  cry  of  a  lost  soul,  and  this 
is  the  Christian  poet's  response :  — 

"  Dim  burns  the  boat  lamp  :  shadows  deepen  round 
From  giant  trees  with  snake-like  creepers  wound, 
And  the  black  water  glides  without  a  sound. 

"  But  in  the  traveler's  heart  a  secret  sense 
Of  nature  plastic  to  benign  intents, 
And  an  eternal  good  in  Providence, 

"  Lifts  to  the  starry  calm  of  heaven  his  eyes  ; 
And,  lo !  rebuking  all  earth's  ominous  cries, 
The  Cross  of  pardon  lights  the  tropic  skies ! 

"  '  Father  of  all !  '  he  urges  his  strong  plea, 
"  '  Thou  lovest  all ;   th)^  erring  child  may  be 
Lost  to  himself,  but  never  lost  to  Thee ! 

"  '  All  souls  are  Thine  ;  the  wings  of  morning  bear 
None  from  that  Presence  which  is  everywhere, 
Nor  hell  itself  can  hide,  for  Thou  art  there. 

"  '  Through  sins  of  sense,  perversities  of  will, 

Through  doubt  and  pain,  through  guilt  and  shame  and  ill, 
Thy  pitying  eye  is  on  thy  creature  still.'  " 

A  lost  soul  is  a  soul  not  yet  found.^  Whenever 
this  lost  child  of  God  comes  to  herself,  she  may 
arise  and  come  to  her  Father.  Though  society 
stand  about  her,  each  with  a  stone  ready  to  fling 

1  This  is  Christ's  interpretation  of  his  own  phrase.  The  lost 
sheep,  the  lost  coin,  and  the  lost  son  were  all  finally  found.  Luke 
XV.  6,  9,  24. 


350      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

at  her,  still  the  Master  condemns  her  judges  with 
the  sentence,  "  He  that  is  without  sin  among  you, 
let  him  cast  the  first  stone."  Still  he  gives  heart 
of  hope  to  the  woman  whom  his  compassion  has 
found,  saying  to  her,  '' Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee;  go  and  sin  no  more." 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE   BROTHERHOOD   OF   MAN. 

In  order  to  comprehend  the  religious  problems 
of  any  age,  we  must  recognize  a  growth  of  hu- 
manity akin  to  the  growth  of  the  individual,  and 
see  how  the  problems  of  life  change  from  age  to 
age.  In  the  first  century,  polytheism  was  almost 
universal.  The  worship  of  the  one  God  was  prac- 
tically confined  within  the  narrow  limits  of  Pal- 
estine. All  Europe  was  divided  into  warring 
provinces,  kept  at  peace  only  by  the  strong  hand 
of  the  Roman  government.  Not  only  each  of 
these  provinces  had  its  god,  but  in  each  province 
every  city,  and  in  each  city  every  hamlet ;  and 
the  ofods  themselves  were  either  immoral  or  im- 
moral.  The  first  lesson  which  the  Christian  Church 
had  to  teach  the  world  was  the  nature  of  God,  — 
that  He  is  one,  and  that  He  is  love.  It  went  forth 
into  Europe  carrying  this  message,  —  that  all  men 
are  children  of  one  Father,  made  in  his  image 
and  redeemed  by  his  love.  Gradually,  under  the 
influence  of  this  message,  Europe  was  unified ; 
the  Church  itself  became  one.  One  language  was 
spoken  in  all  the  churches,  whatever  language 
might  be  spoken  in  the  various  provinces.     One 


352      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

ritual  prevailed  in  all  the  cliurclies,  whatever  laws 
might  prevail  in  the  various  communities.  One 
God  was  worshiped  in  all  the  churches,  and  gradu- 
ally came  to  be  worshiped  in  all  the  homes.  Still, 
for  a  time,  the  nature  of  God  was  hotly  debated 
even  within  the  Church  of  Christ.  We  look  back 
upon  these  debates  that  issued  in  the  Nicene  Creed 
with  almost  amused  contempt.  But  the  debate 
over  Homoousian  and  Homoiousian  was  not  so 
insignificant  as  it  seems  to  us  to  be.  The  ques- 
tion fundamental  in  it  was  this  :  Does  Jesus  Christ 
really  manifest  the  nature  of  God?  It  was  not 
until  well  along  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  the  truth 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  manifestation  of  God 
came  to  be  universally  accepted  as  the  catholic 
faith  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  For  the  divisions 
in  Christendom  are  no  longer  divisions  respecting 
the  nature  of  God.  The  orthodox  and  the  hetero- 
dox, the  Protestant  and  the  Roman  Catholic,  nay, 
the  Christian  and  the  theist,  agree  substantially  in 
this  —  that  there  is  one  God,  and  that  he  is  merci- 
ful and  loving,  like  Jesus  Christ.  The  difference 
between  the  rationalist  and  the  orthodox  to-day  in 
their  interpretation  of  Christ  seems  to  be  chiefly 
this :  Both  look  at  the  image  in  the  mirror ;  the 
orthodox  says,  "  This  is  the  image  of  God  ; "  the 
rationalist  says,  ''  This  is  not  the  image  of  God, 
but  God  looks  exactly  like  him." 

Next  came  the  question.  What  is  the  nature  of 
man?  There  was  no  recognition  of  man  as  man 
in  the  first  century.     There  were  Greeks,  Romans, 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  353 

Jews,  Teutons,  Gauls,  but  there  was  no  man. 
There  were  j^^^tricians  and  plebeians  and  slaves, 
but  there  was  no  man.  When  Paul  said,  "  In 
Jesus  Christ  all  are  one,  —  Greek  and  Jew,  cir- 
cumcision and  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scyth- 
ian, bond  and  free,"  i  — he  uttered  a  very  radical 
truth.  It  was  a  long  while  before  the  world  came 
to  recognize  that  of  one  blood  God  hath  made  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  for  to  dwell  on  all  the 
face  of  the  earth,^  — before  men  came  to  recognize 
that  there  is  a  bond  that  unites  humanity  deeper 
and  stronger  than  the  bond  that  unites  men  in 
families,  tribes,  nations,  or  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tions. That  man  is  man;  that  he  is  a  son  of 
God  ;  that  slave  and  plebeian,  rich  and  poor,  Jew 
and  Gentile,  are  sons  of  God,  and  that  they  have 
wandered  from  their  God  and  separated  them- 
selves from  Him, — this  also  was  the  message  of 
Christ's  Church.  It  was  a  long  time  before  hu- 
manity learned  this  message ;  centuries  was  it  in 
studying  this  simple  lesson :  but  finally  it  was 
wrou"-ht  into  the  faith  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  in  some  measure  into  the  faith  of  Christen- 
dom, —  God  is  good ;  man  is  his  child,  but  has 
sinned  against  Him. 

Then  came  the  next  great  question,  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Reformation:  How  is  this  man  who 
is  separated  from  God  and  has  sinned  to  be 
brought  back  to  Him  again  ?  How  can  this  man, 
who  has  despised  this  goodness  of  God,  violated 
1  Gal.  iii.  28 ;  Col.  iii.  11.  ^  Acts  xvii.  26. 


354      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

his  law,  turned  his  back  on  Him,  —  how  can  he 
be  brought  back  to  his  Father's  home?  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church  said :  There  is  only  one 
door ;  he  must  come  through  the  Church  ;  he  must 
pay  his  price,  in  penance  here  or  purgatory  here- 
after ;  or  he  may  compound  for  it  and  get  an  ab- 
solution, which  is  not  permission  to  sin,  but  relief 
from  the  pains  of  penances  and  the  pains  of  pur- 
gatory. Then  it  was  that  Luther  came  with  his 
message  :  Every  man  is  a  son  of  God,  and  stands 
directly  and  immediately  in  the  presence  of  God  : 
he  need  pay  no  price  ;  need  ask  no  permission ; 
need  enter  through  no  church  door.  God  is  love, 
and  man  is  need :  wherever  love  is  and  need  is, 
they  are  drawn  together ;  all  that  man  has  to  do 
is  to  go  back  in  faith  and  hojie  and  love,  for  God 
never  has  ceased  to  love  him.  That  lesson  also  is 
pretty  well  learned.  It  is  to  be  proclaimed  again 
and  again  from  the  Christian  pulpit ;  it  is  to  be 
taught  against  the  legalism  of  Puritanism  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  legalism  of  Romanism  on  the 
other ;  and  yet,  in  the  main,  it  is  believed  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as  truly  as  in  the 
Protestant  Church.  It  would  be  hard  to  find 
anywhere  in  English  literature  a  better  statement 
of  the  essential  Lutheran  doctrine  than  in  Faber's 
hymn :  — 

"  There  's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea, 
And  a  kindness  in  his  justice 
Which  is  more  than  liberty." 


THE  BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  355 

Thus  these  three  great  questions  have  been  asked 
and  answered  :  Who  is  God  ?  God  is  love.  What 
is  man  ?  His  chikl,  a  sinner.  How  shall  this  sin- 
ner come  back  to  find  God  ?  Let  him  come,  and 
love  will  be  ready  to  receive  him. 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  was  the  world  ready  for 
the  next  great  question  :  How  are  these  men,  sons 
of  God,  to  live  together  in  one  human  brother- 
hood ?  That  is  the  question  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  of  the  American  community.^  Still 
the  pulpit  must  proclaim  that  God  is  one  ;  still  it 
must  insist  that  God  is  love  ;  still  it  must  declare 
that  man  is  God's  son  ;  still  it  must  affirm  that 
man  has  wandered  from  God  and  needs  to  return  ; 
still  it  must  declare  that  there  is  no  obstacle  be- 
tween the  soul  and  God  except  his  own  unwilling- 
ness to  return.  These  truths  it  must  declare  over 
and  over  again  to  new  generations.  But  these  are 
no  longer  problems  to  be  debated  and  discussed. 
The  problem  of  our  time  is.  How  are  men  who  are 
sons  of  God  to  live  together  in  one  human  brother- 
hood ?  This  is  the  question  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries,  and  this  is  preeminently  the 
question  which  is  to  be  answered  by  practical  ex- 
periment in  the  United  States  of  America. 

Into  the  United  States  God  has  poured  a  vast 
heterogeneous  population.  The  picture  which  John 
painted  in  the  Apocalypse  may  be  seen  here,  with 

1  For  this  general  outline  of  the  history  of  doctrine  I  am  in- 
debted to  an  address  of  Dr.  Julius  H.  Seelye,  so  far  as  I  know 
not  published. 


356      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

a  difference :  men  gathered  out  of  all  nations  and 
kindreds  and  peoples  and  tongues,  but  not  before 
the  throne  of  God,  nor  praising  him.  Every  phase 
of  individual  character  is  here  represented  ;  every 
race,  every  nationality,  every  language,  every  form 
of  religion.  Here  are  the  Irishman,  the  Englishman, 
the  Frenchman,  the  Swede,  the  Norwegian,  the 
German,  the  Hungarian,  the  Pole,  the  Italian,  the 
Spaniard,  the  Portuguese.  Here  are  the  Celt, 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  the  African,  the  Malay.  Here  is 
the  negro,  with  his  emotional  religion  ;  the  Roman 
Catholic,  with  his  ceremonial  religion  ;  the  Puritan, 
with  his  intellectual  religion  ;  and  the  unbelieving 
German,  with  his  no  religion  at  all.  Hither  they 
have  come  trooping,  sometimes  beckoned  by  us, 
sometimes  thrust  upon  us,  sometimes  invading  us ; 
but,  welcome  or  unwelcome,  still  they  come.  To 
America  the  language  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  pro- 
phet may  be  almost  literally  applied :  — 

"  The  sons  of  strangers  also  shall  build  thy  walls, 
And  their  kings  shall  serve  thee  ; 


"  Thy  gates  also  shall  be  open  continually  ; 
They  shall  not  be  shut  by  day  nor  by  night ; 
That  men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  forces  of  the  Gentiles, 
And  that  their  kings  may  be  brought."  ^ 

This  heterogeneous  people  occupy  a  land  which 
embraces  every  variety  of  climate,  from  that  of 
Northern  Europe  to  that  of  Middle  Asia ;  and  every 
variety  of  wealth,  from  that  of  the  wheat-fields  of 

^  Isa.  Ix.  10,  11.     The  whole  chapter  applies  in  a  remarkable 
manner  to  the  present  condition  of  the  United  States. 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAX.  o57 

Russia  to  that  of   the  silver  mines  o£  Golconcla. 
Its  fertile  soil  gives  every  variety  of  production, 
from  the  pine-trees  of  Maine  to  the  orange  groves 
of  Florida.     It   has   for  agricidture  vast  prairies 
of  exhaustless  wealth  ;  for  mines,  mountains  rich 
in  coal,  iron,  copper,  silver,  gold  ;  for  mills,  swift- 
running  rivers  ;  for  carriage,  slow  and  deep  ones  ; 
and   for    commerce,    a   harbor-indented    coast-line 
lying  open  to   two  oceans,  and  inviting  the  com- 
merce of  two  hemispheres.     I  do  not  dwell  upon 
the    magnificence  of  this  endowment,  —  that  is  a 
familiar  aspect,  —  but  upon  its  diversity.     The  na- 
tion which  occupies  such  a  land  must  be  diverse  in 
industry  as  it  is  heterogeneous  in  population.     The 
simplicity  of  social  and  industrial  organization  has 
long   since  passed   away.      There  are    few  richer 
men  in  the  world  than  in  America,  and  none  who 
have  amassed  such  wealth  in  so  short  a  time  ;  there 
are  no  poorer  men  in  the  world,  and  nowhere  men 
whose  poverty   is  so    embittered  by   disappointed 
hopes  and  shattered  ambitions.    In  the  Old  World 
men   are  born   to   poverty,   and  accept   their  pre- 
destined lot  with  contentment,  if  not  with  cheer- 
fulness.    In  America  the  ambitious  youth  sees  a 
possible   preferment   in   the    future,   counts    every 
advance  only  a  step  towards  further  advancement, 
and  attributes  every  failure  to  injustice  or  ill-luck. 
Society,   thus   made   up   of  heterogeneous   popula- 
tions,   subjected    to   the   educational    influence    of 
widely    differing    religions,   engaged  in   industries 
whose  interests  often  seem  to  conflict  if  they  actu- 


35S      CHRIST  TAX  IT  Y  AND    S  OCTAL   PROBLEMS. 

ally  do  not,  and  separated  into  classes  by  continu- 
ally shifting  partition-walls,  is  kept  in  perpetual 
ferment  by  the  nature  of  its  educational,  political, 
and  social  institutions.  The  boys  of  the  rich  and 
the  poor  sit  by  each  other's  side  in  the  same  school- 
room ;  their  fathers  brush  against  each  other  in  the 
same  conveyance.  The  hod-carrier  and  the  million- 
aire hang  by  the  same  strap  and  sway  against  each 
other  in  the  same  street-car.  Every  election  brings 
rich  and  poor,  cultivated  and  ignorant,  into  line  to 
deposit  ballots  of  equal  weight  in  the  same  ballot- 
box,  and  makes  it  the  interest  of  each  to  win  the 
suffrage  of  the  other  for  his  candidate  and  his 
party.  The  caldron,  political  and  economical,  is 
always  seething  and  boiling  ;  the  bottom  thrown 
to  the  top,  the  top  sinking  in  turn  to  the  bottom. 
The  canal-boat  driver  becomes  President,  the  deck- 
hand a  railroad  magnate.  The  son  of  the  Presi- 
dent mingles  with  the  masses  of  the  peoi)le  in  the 
battle  for  position  and  i^referment,  and  the  son  of 
yesterday's  millionaire  is  to-morrow  earning  his 
daily  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  In  the  Old 
World  men  live  like  monks  in  a  monastery ;  each 
class,  if  not  each  individual,  has  its  own  cell.  Here 
all  walls  are  down  and  all  classes  live  in  commons. 
All  this  is  familiar ;  it  is  enough  here  to  sketch 
it  in  the  barest  outlines  :  for  my  only  purpose  in 
recalling  it  is  to  ask  the  reader  to  consider  what 
is  its.  moral  meaning.  It  can  have  but  one.  Into 
this  continent  God  has  thrown  this  heterogeneous 
people,  in  this  effervescent  and  seething  mass,  that 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  359 

in  the  struggle  they  may  learn  the  laws  of  social 
life.  African,  Malay,  Anglo-Saxon,  and  Celt, 
ignorant  and  cultivated,  rich  and  poor,  God  flings 
VIS  together  under  institutions  which  inextricably 
intermix  us,  that  he  may  teach  us  by  experience 
the  meaning  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

All  our  national  problems  are  problems  of  hu- 
man brotherhood.  The  question  that  lay  before 
this  nation  in  1784  was  a  question  of  human 
brotherhood :  How  shall  these  colonies,  with  their 
diverse  interests,  their  petty  jealousies,  their  ani- 
mosities, live  together  in  one  free  nation  ?  And 
our  fathers  were  wise  enough  to  deal  with  it,  and, 
on  the  whole,  wisely  solved  it.  There  came  the 
slavery  question  :  What  shall  we  do  with  these 
four  millions  of  slave  population  ?  What  does 
brotherhood  require  of  us  ?  And  God  gave  us  the 
strength  and  wisdom  to  give  the  right  answer  to 
that  through  terrible  war.  There  came  the  ques- 
tion :  What  does  human  brotherhood  owe  to  the 
ignorant  ?  The  public  school  is  our  reply  to  that. 
The  community  owes  education  to  the  children  of 
its  poor.  There  came  the  question :  What  shall 
be  the  religious  institutions  of  such  a  community  ? 
The  answer  was,  K  free  Church  in  a  free  State  ;  re- 
ligion must  be  spontaneous,  and  the  religious  insti- 
tutions must  spring  spontaneously  from  the  needs 
and  the  constitutions  of  the  individuals  who  con- 
stitute the  community.  The  industrial  question 
and  the  temperance  question  are  but  other  forms 
of  this  one  question  :  How  shall  a  great,  hetero- 


360      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

geneous  population,  diverse  in  race,  in  religion,  in 
tradition,  in  history,  in  social  condition,  live  peace- 
fully and  prosperously  together  in  human  brother- 
hood ? 

This  is  certainly  a  question  which  the  Church 
must  help  to  answer.  It  is  emphatically  a  reli- 
gious question. 1  If  the  Church  does  not  interest 
itself  in  what  concerns  humanity,  it  cannot  hope 
that  humanity  will  interest  itself  in  what  concerns 
the  Church.  Why,  indeed,  should  it?  If  the 
Church  shelters  itself  under  the  plea  that  religion 
is  a  matter  between  the  individual  soul  and  God, 
it  adopts  a  very  much  narrower  definition  of 
religion  than  that  of  the  Bible.  The  Hebrew 
prophet  who  asked,  "  What  doth  the  Lord  require 
of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  "  had  a  conception 
of  religion  two  parts  of  which  have  to  do  with 
our  relations  to  our  fellov/-men,  and  one  part  with 
our  relations  to  God.  Christ's  summary  of  the 
law  and  the  prophets  puts  as  much  emphasis  on 
the  brotherhood  of  man  as  on  the  fatherhood 
of  God.  Indeed,  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  A 
religion  which  did  not  teach  us  how  to  live  on 
earth  would  have  small  claims  upon  our  respect 
when  it  claimed  to  teach  us  how  to  prepare  for 
heaven.  A  teacher  who  cannot  tell  his  boys  how  to 
get  along  with  each  other  in  their  school  is  not  the 
man  to  prepare  them  to  get  along  with  each  other 

^  "  Every  political  question  is  rapidly  becoming'  a  social  ques- 
tion, and  every  social  question  a  religious  question."  —  Mazzini. 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  361 

as  men.  Christianity  is  not  merely  individual ;  it 
is  organic.  The  teacher  of  Christianity  who  does 
not  discover  laws  of  social  life  in  the  Bible  has 
studied  it  to  very  little  purpose.  The  teacher  who 
does  not  teach  those  laws  does  not  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  either  the  Old  Testament  prophets,  the 
New  Testament  apostles,  or  the  divine  Master  of 
both. 

To  whom  else  shall  the  people  look  for  instruc- 
tion in  the  moral  principles  of  a  true  social  order 
if  not  to  the  ministry  ?  Shall  they  look  to  the 
politicians?  Their  function  in  a  democracy  is  not 
to  inculcate,  still  less  to  discover,  great  principles. 
They  are  executive  officers,  not  teachers.  They 
are  appointed  to  formulate  in  law  and  so  set  in 
motion  the  principles  which,  under  the  instruction 
of  others,  the  people  have  adopted.  This  is  what 
more  or  less  effectively  they  are  doing  ;  and  this 
is  what  they  ought  to  do.  The  politician  is  not 
a  motive-power  ;  he  is  a  belting,  and  connects  the 
motive-power  with  the  machinery.  He  gets  things 
done  when  the  people  have  determined  what  they 
want  done.  Shall  we,  then,  look  to  the  editors  for 
moral  instruction  in  sociology  ?  The  editors  ought 
to  be  public  teachers,  but  with  few  exceptions  they 
have  abdicated.  The  secular  press  is  devoted  to 
secular  news-gathering  and  to  party  service  ;  the 
religious  press  to  ecclesiastical  news-gathering  and 
denominational  service.  There  are  some  notable 
exceptions,  but  they  do  but  prove  the  rule.  Not 
long  since,  I  heard  the  editor  of  one  of  the  wealth- 


362      CHRISTIANITY   AXD    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

iest  and  most  successful,  though  not  most  influen- 
tial, of  American  journals  say  in  a  public  debate 
that  the  daily  paper  was  organized  to  make  money, 
and  that  was  what  it  ought  to  be  organized  for. 
So  long  as  this  is  deemed  true  by  the  editors,  the 
newspaper  cannot  be  a  teacher.  The  world  has 
never  paid  for  leadership  —  until  the  leader  was 
dead.  Such  a  press  can  only  crystallize  the  public 
sentiment  which  others  have  created,  and  so  make 
efficacious  a  feeling  which  otherwise  would  effer- 
vesce in  emotion.  This  it  does,  and  for  this  ser- 
vice we  are  duly  grateful.  But  it  cannot  —  at 
least  it  generally  does  not  —  do  the  work  of  an 
investigator.  It  does  not  discover  laws  of  life. 
It  does  not  create ;  it  only  represents.  It  is  a 
reservoir,  without  which  the  mill  could  not  be 
driven ;  but  the  reservoir  must  itself  be  fed  by  the 
springs  among  the  hills.  The  real  formers  of 
public  opinion  are  the  teachers  and  the  preachers, 
the  schools  and  the  churches.  The  former  are 
necessarily  empirical ;  they  deduce  the  laws  of  life 
from  a  study  of  past  experience.  The  latter  ought 
to  be  prophets.  Their  sympathy  with  all  classes 
of  men,  their  common  contact  with  rich  and  poor, 
their  opportunities  for  reflection  and  meditation, 
their  supposed  consecration  to  a  work  wholly  un- 
selfish and  disinterested,  ought  to  combine  with 
their  piety  to  give  them  that  insight  into  life  which 
has  always  been  characteristic  of  a  prophetic 
order.  I  do  not  mean  to  demand  of  the  ministry 
the  impossible  ;  but  if  this  is  not  their  function,  it 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF   MAN.  363 

would  be  difficult  to  say  what  function  tliey  have. 
They  cannot  formulate  public  opinion  in  laws  as 
well  as  the  politicians  ;  they  cannot  represent  that 
public  opinion  which  is  already  formed  as  well  as 
the  journalists  ;  they  cannot  extract  the  truth  from 
a  scientific  study  of  life  as  well  as  the  teacher  and 
the  scholar.  But  so  far  as  natural  selection,  aided 
by  special  studies  and  a  generally  quiet  life,  can 
equip  any  class  of  men  for  a  prophetic  function, 
and  so  fit  them  to  discern  the  great  moral  laws  of 
the  social  order,  the  ministry  are  so  equipped.  If 
they  will  leave  the  professional  teachers  to  expound 
the  secular,  that  is,  the  empirical  side  of  social 
science,  the  newspapers  to  reflect  such  conclusions 
respecting  this  science  as  are  formed,  and  the  poli- 
ticians to  embody  those  opinions  and  principles 
in  law,  and  will  devote  themselves  to  the  spiritual 
study  of  the  Bible  and  of  life,  —  that  book  which 
is  always  being  written  and  is  never  finished,  — 
they  can  be  leaders  of  the  leaders.  They  can  lay 
the  foundations  on  which  other  men  shall  rear  the 
superstructure.  They  speak,  or  can  speak,  to  all 
classes  in  the  community,  for  they  belong  to  none. 
They  address  audiences  of  personal  friends,  whom 
they  have  counseled  and  aided  in  the  hours  when 
friendship  is  the  most  full  of  sweet  significance. 
They  speak  to  these  friends  at  a  time  when  baser 
passions  are  allayed  and  moral  sentiments  are 
awakened.  The  very  smallness  of  their  auditory, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  journalist,  adds  force 
to  their  counsels  and  affords  protection  from  mis- 


364     CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

apprehension.  The  Church  and  ministry,  then, 
must  be  competent  to  give  instruction  in  the  moral 
laws  which  govern  social  and  industrial  life,  —  the 
organized  life  of  humanity.  The  age  requires  this 
instruction ;  the  people  desire  it ;  the  religious 
teachers  should  give  it. 

It  is  in  this  conviction  that  this  volume  has  been 
written ;  in  this  conviction  I  endeavor  to  summa- 
rize very  briefly  here  in  a  few  paragraphs  the  prin- 
ciples elucidated  in  the  preceding  chapters. 

Man  is  God's  child,  and  therefore  has  suprem- 
acy over  himself.  This  is  the  divine  foundation 
of  liberty,  in  State,  in  Church,  in  Society,  —  the 
doctrine  that  in  man  himself  is  dormant  a  power 
to  control  himself.  If  he  uses  his  liberty  to  do  me 
a  wrong,  I  may  protect  myself ;  if  he  uses  it  to  do 
society  a  wrong,  society  may  protect  itself.  There 
its  right  to  control  ceases.  It  may  persuade,  argue, 
entreat  ;  but  man  is  God's  son,  and  sonship  gives 
him  liberty.  He  is  to  be  controlled  by  the  dictates 
of  his  own  judgment.  He  may  blunder  even  unto 
death,  but  it  is  better  to  die  a  free  man  than  to 
live  a  slave.  Our  goddess  of  liberty  ought  not  to 
be  a  pagan  goddess.  It  should  be  the  figure  of 
Christ;  he  holds  the  torch  which  illumines  the 
world. 

As  a  part  of  this  supremacy  over  himself  is  the 
right  of  every  man,  as  against  his  fellow-men,  to 
own  and  control  his  own  labor,  and  therefore  the 
product  of  his  own  labors.  With  the  Communism 
which  denies  the  right  of  private  property  Chris- 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF   MAN.  365 

tianity  has  nothing  in  common,  unless  this  can  be 
thought  to  be  in  common,  that  it  teaches,  as  does 
economic  science  also,  that  all  wealth  is  in  a  moral 
sense  common  wealth,  the  product  of  a  common 
endeavor,  very  imperfectly  divided  by  our  current 
methods  of  division,  or  by  any  other  conceivable. 
Science  and  Christianity  combine  to  teach  that 
every  man  receives  his  wealth  —  be  it  little  or 
much  —  from  One  higher  than  himself,  and  holds 
it  therefore  in  trust  for  him  from  whom  he  has 
received  it,  who  bids  him  administer  that  trust  in 
and  for  the  public  welfare. 

Nevertheless,  Christianity  is  not  individualism, 
in  State,  Church,  or  social  organization.  Liberty 
is  not  independence.  The  Socialism  which  means 
"giving  to  the  hands,  not  so  large  a  share  as  to 
the  brain,  but  a  larger  share  than  hitherto,  in  the 
wealth  they  must  combine  to  produce,"  means  also, 
as  James  Russell  Lowell  has  well  said,  ''  the  prac- 
tical application  of  Christianity  to  life,  and  has 
in  it  the  secret  of  an  orderly  and  beneficent  recon- 
struction." ^  Christianity  agrees  with  Socialism 
in  recognizing  the  mutual  dependence  of  men, 
and  classes  of  men,  on  each  other,  and  in  seeking 
a  larger  diffusion  of  virtue,  intelligence,  political 
power,  and  wealth ;  but  it  differs  from  Socialism 
in  putting  first,  both  as  an  end  in  itself  and  as  a 
means  to  social  reconstruction,  the  reconstruction 
of  the  individual. 

In  the  social  order,  Christianity  insists  on  the 
^  James  Russell  Lowell,  Democracy.,  and  Other  Addresses,  p.  40. 


366      CHRISTIANITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

maintenance  of  the  home  unbroken ;  for  the  home 
is  the  foundation  of  the  social  order:  the  State, 
the  Church,  industrial  civilization,  are  all  built 
upon  the  home.  When  we  begin  to  suppose  that 
love  requires  no  patience,  no  forbearance,  no  long- 
suffering  ;  that  love  may  simply  seek  its  own,  and 
not  another's  welfare ;  that  when  any  friction 
comes  into  the  household,  the  remedy  is  to  take 
the  machine  to  pieces  and  make  a  new  machine 
in  the  place  of  it,  —  we  are  going  back  to  the  old 
paganism  in  Rome,  which  declared  that  marriage 
is  simply  a  partnership  made  at  pleasure,  and  to 
be  dissolved  at  pleasure.  The  fundamental  teach- 
ing of  Christ  on  this  subject  is  that  marriage  is 
not  a  partnershij),  and  cannot  be  dissolved  as  are 
other  partnerships  ;  that  it  is  a  divine  order,  and 
on  its  permanence  the  permanence  of  society  de- 
pends. Whatever  threatens  the  family,  threatens 
society  at  the  foundation. 

For  the  maintenance  of  industrial  order  Christ 
enunciates  two  fundamental  principles,  —  the  law 
of  service  and  the  standard  of  values.  Industrial 
peace  is  to  be  brought  about,  not  by  a  well-bal- 
anced conflict  of  self-interest,  by  capital  buying 
labor  in  the  cheapest  market,  and  labor  selling 
itself  in  the  highest  market,  and  each  trying  to 
outwit  the  other,  but  by  a  frank  recognition  of 
partnership  between  the  power  of  the  brain  and 
the  power  of  the  muscle,  which  should  be  united 
in  the  community  as  they  are  united  in  the  indi- 
vidual, and  should  work  together  for  the  largest 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  367 

service  to  humanity ;  not  the  greatest  acquisition 
of  wealth,  but  the  greatest  development  of  man- 
kind. Brotherhood  certainly  does  not  mean  that 
all  men  are  equal :  Christ  says,  "  He  that  is  great- 
est among  you  shall  be  your  servant."  It  does  not 
mean  that  all  men  shall  render  the  same  service 
or  receive  the  same  rewards.  Christ,  in  the  Par- 
able of  the  Talents,  says :  "  He  gave  to  one  man 
five  talents,  to  another  two,  and  to  another  one ;  to 
every  man  according  to  his  several  ability."  ^ 
Christ  does  not  accept  the  pseudo  principle  that 
all  men  are  to  be  paid  alike,  irrespective  of  their 
service.  Christ  has  sometimes  been  called  a  great 
leveler.  That  is  a  mistake ;  he  was  not  a  great 
leveler,  but  a  great  elevator.  His  purpose  was  to 
develop  the  highest,  noblest,  divinest  quality  in 
each  individual,  and  therefore  the  highest  and 
noblest  quality  in  the  aggregate  of  individuals. 
For  character  is  the  end  of  life,  and  all  that  we 
live  for  is  manhood  and  womanhood.  We  are  to 
live,  not  that  we  may  have  things,  but  that  he  may 
make  us  better  men  and  women  ;  not  that  we  may 
have  liberty,  but  that  out  of  our  liberty  there  may 
come  a  better  growth  ;  not  that  we  may  have  edu- 
cation, if  by  education  we  mean  schools  and  books, 
but  that  out  of  schools  and  books  there  may  emerge 
a  nobler  manhood  ;  not  even  that  we  may  have  re- 
ligion, if  by  religion  we  mean  creeds  and  rituals 
and  churches  and  preachers ;  these  are  of  use  only 
as  they  make  men  more  worthy  to  be  called  sons 

^  Matthew  xxv.  15. 


368      CHRISTIAXITY   AND    SOCIAL    PROBLEMS. 

of  God.  Service  is  the  universal  duty  ;  character 
is  the  sole  standard  of  values. 

There  are  enemies  of  the  social  order :  in  deal- 
ing with  them  we  are  to  be  inspired  by  love,  not 
by  wrath ;  and  are  to  adjust  penalties  solely  for 
the  purpose  of  reform,  never  for  the  purpose  of 
retribution.  When  men  raise  their  hands  against 
society  and  trample  law  under  foot,  we  are  not  to 
revenge  ourselves  on  them ;  we  are  not  to  shut 
them  up  and  forget  them:  our  attitude  of  mind 
toward  them  is  to  be  precisely  the  attitude  of  mind 
of  Jesus  Christ  toward  sinners.  The  Christian 
problem  is.  How  shall  we  cure  these  men  of  their 
disease?  how  shall  we  redeem  these  men  from 
their  sin?  how  shall  we  reform  these  enemies  of 
the  social  order? 

There  are  controversies  which  threaten  to  dis- 
rupt the  brotherhood.  There  are  two  ways  of  set- 
tling such  controversies.  The  pagan  way  is  wager 
of  battle.  This  gives  victory  to  strength,  not  to 
justice.  Christ's  method  is.  Submit  the  question 
to  reason,  first  in  the  parties  ;  if  that  fail,  then  in 
some  impartial  tribunal.  We  have  measurably 
accepted  this  as  the  method  for  settling  controver- 
sies between  man  and  man ;  we  are  to  accept  it  as 
the  method  for  settling  controversies  between  class 
and  class,  and  between  nation  and  nation. 

The  problem  of  our  American  commonwealth  is 
to  teach  men  the  meaning  of  the  words  which  run 
so  glibly  from  our  tongues,  —  justice  and  liberty  ; 
to  teach  what  are  the  laws  under  which  men   and 


THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF  MAN.  369 

women  should  live ;  to  sweep  away  the  cant  that 
obscures  the  word  "brotherhood,"  and  give  it  a 
clear  and  definite  meaning,  not  by  words  chiefly, 
but  by  our  lives  and  our  national  character. 

I  do  not  imagine  that  this  volume  offers  a  solu- 
tion  of  this  problem  or  these  problems,  but  I  hope 
that  it  may  serve  to  indicate  the  lines  of  investiga- 
tion to  which  the  needs  of  the  nineteenth  century 
invite  the  religious  teacher.  If  he  will  go  to  his 
Bible  for  this  purpose,  he  will  find  it  quite  as  rich 
in  sociological  as  in  theological  instruction  ;  quite 
as  fertile  in  its  suggestions  respecting  the  duty  of 
man  to  man  as  in  its  suggestions  respecting  the 
nature  and  government  of  God.  He  will  find  his 
New  Testament  telling  him  that  the  brotherhood 
of  man  is  an  integral  part  of  Christianity  no  less 
than  the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  that  to  deny  the 
one  is  no  less  infidel  than  to  deny  the  other;  he 
will  find  in  it  no  light  upon  scientific  details  of 
political  or  industrial  organization,  but  he  will  find 
the  great  moral  laws  of  the  social  order,  if  not 
clearly  revealed,  at  least  definitely  indicated.  Sir 
Henry  Maine  has  shown  very  clearly  that  demo- 
cracy is  not  yet  "  triumphant  democracy  ; "  it  is  still 
an  experiment.  The  American  Revolution  deter- 
mined our  right  to  try  it  on  this  continent  without 
fear  of  foreign  intervention.  The  Civil  War  deter- 
mined our  right  to  try  it  without  fear  of  domestic 
disruption.  We  have  still  to  work  out  the  prob- 
lem. Whether  a  people  diverse  in  race,  religion, 
and  industry  can  live    happily    and  prosperously 


370      CHRISTIANITY  AND    SOCIAL   PROBLEMS. 

together,  with  no  other  law  over  them  than  the 
invisible  law  of  right  and  wrong,  and  no  other 
authority  over  them  than  the  unarmed  authority 
of  conscience,  is  the  question  which  America  has 
to  solve  for  the  world. 


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